About

Editorial Policy

The standards by which we write, source, and review the clinical content on this website. We publish this policy publicly so readers can hold us to it.

Last updated:

Who writes our content

Articles are drafted by our internal writing team using only sources on the citation whitelist below. Before any clinical or informational page is moved from draft to published, a licensed clinician on our staff reviews it for accuracy, balance, safety, and compliance with current clinical guidelines. The reviewer's name and credentials appear as a byline at the top of the page, with the date of review.

Articles that have not yet been clinically reviewed display an "Editor's note" indicating that status, rather than silently shipping without a review. We would rather be transparent about review status than imply a review that hasn't happened.

Citation whitelist

We cite only sources from the following list. Any claim that cannot be sourced from this list is removed from the article rather than paraphrased without attribution.

  • U.S. federal agencies: SAMHSA, NIDA, NIMH, NIH, CDC.
  • Peer-reviewed clinical research indexed in PubMed, including Cochrane systematic reviews.
  • Professional societies: American Psychiatric Association (APA), American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
  • Accreditation and oversight bodies: Joint Commission, CARF International, LegitScript.
  • Clinical guideline organizations: NICE (UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), USPSTF (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force).
  • State professional boards for verifying clinician licensure (e.g., California Board of Behavioral Sciences, Medical Board of California).

We do not cite: competitor treatment-center websites, Wikipedia, marketing or affiliate-driven content sites, paywalled non-peer-reviewed press, or treatment-aggregator referral platforms.

Review cadence

Every published page that describes a clinical condition, modality, or program is re-reviewed at minimum every twelve months. Re-review either results in an updated "Last clinically reviewed" date or, if the content no longer reflects current clinical understanding, the page is retired and any inbound URL redirected to a parent topic page rather than 404'd. We never silently leave out-of-date content live.

Outcome claims and patient stories

We do not publish outcome statistics (program completion rate, return-to-work rate, sobriety rate, etc.) unless those metrics are calculated against a clearly stated denominator and time window, and the calculation method is visible on the same page as the claim.

We do not publish patient testimonials, success stories, or before/after narratives written by anyone other than the patient. Where we do quote patients, it is with their written consent and with identifying details altered or removed in compliance with HIPAA.

Corrections and reader feedback

If you spot an error or have a question about a source on any page on this site, contact us at admissions@manifestbehavioralhealth.com. We track every reported issue, respond directly to the reporter, and publish corrections inline on the affected page with a brief note about what changed and when.