One argument against invoking the legal coercion act more often in Norway is the notion that patients that perceive coercion would not be motivated to accept treatment. Some researchers hold that, for patients with SUD, the perception of coercion may influence the motivation for treatment, which in turn, was found to influence the patient’s perseverance with treatment and the treatment outcome . Thus, treatment can be effective only when the person is truly motivated, i.e., wants to change. A variation of this position holds that people that are addicted to substances must ‘hit rock bottom’ before they can benefit from treatment [27, 28]; however, this circumstance is not necessarily true for many patients coerced into treatment. According to this view, it is a poor investment to devote resources to patients that are unlikely to change, because they have little or no motivation to change. This argument leads to the empirical question of whether patients that are coerced into treatment lack recognition of their problem, and therefore, have no desire to change . In the present study, we found that the VA group scored higher than the IA group on the Self subscale, indicating that these patients might have had more insight into their own situation. Thus, the VA group could more readily admit and accept that they needed help. Nevertheless, the IA group also scored high on the Self subscale. This suggested that the IA patients also had some insight into their problems. These findings supported the notion that a less motivated patient admitted involuntarily may be able to benefit from the stay on the ward, in ways similar to the benefits observed among the patients admitted voluntarily. When Sullivan compared the Johnson Intervention method of referral to outpatient treatment, the coerced groups were more likely to complete treatment than non-coerced groups .