Addiction Treatment Centers: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which addiction treatment center led the benchmark in October 2026, and by how wide a margin?
• How did the leader's recommendation coverage compare with the previous measurement?
• What changed in the benchmark between July 2026 and October 2026?

Hazelden Betty Ford led the Addiction Treatment Centers benchmark in October 2026 with 18.5% valid recommendation coverage. The gap between Hazelden Betty Ford and the next brand, Caron Treatment Centers, stood at 16.7 percentage points in October 2026.

Hazelden Betty Ford recorded the largest coverage increase, rising to 18.5% in October 2026 from 2.8% in July 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. No tracked brand recorded a coverage decline beyond normal variation between July 2026 and October 2026. The largest decline belonged to The Recovery Village, which fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 4.2% in July 2026.

The month-over-month picture shows Hazelden Betty Ford rising to 18.5% in October 2026 from 7.0% in September 2026, a significant monthly increase. Caron Treatment Centers edged up to 1.8% in October 2026 from 1.6% in September 2026. Recovery Centers of America returned to 0.9% in October 2026 after recording 0.0% in September 2026.

The benchmark drew on 435 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and 662 in October 2026, producing 108 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

September 2026 sat between the baseline and current months, with 128 qualified observations and a leader share of 7.0% for Hazelden Betty Ford. Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation in the month. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Addiction Treatment Centers

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• Why is the public benchmark narrower than the raw collection universe?
• Which observations count toward the brand-level percentages?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology for full details.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which addiction treatment centers qualified for the benchmark, and how does each rank on valid recommendation coverage?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage tell different stories about a single brand?

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in any capacity. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand receives a recommendation that is usable for a buyer decision. Top-three rate is the share of observations where the brand appears in one of the first three recommended positions. Rank-one rate is the share of observations where the brand is the single first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, scaled from 0 to 1 where 1 is entirely positive.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which addiction treatment center recorded the largest recommendation coverage gain since the baseline?
• Which brand's recommendation coverage declined the most after holding the benchmark lead?

The prior-to-current month moves show Hazelden Betty Ford rising to 18.5% in October 2026 from 7.0% in September 2026, beyond normal month-to-month variation, a significant monthly increase. Recovery Centers of America edged up to 0.9% in October 2026 from 0.0% in September 2026. Gateway Foundation recorded a second consecutive monthly increase, reaching 0.9% in October 2026 from 0.8% in September 2026.

Largest Increase: Hazelden Betty Ford

Hazelden Betty Ford's valid recommendation coverage rose to 18.5% in October 2026 from 2.8% in July 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. Its top-three rate reached 14.8% in October 2026 from 1.4% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate reached 13.0% from 1.4%. The brand recorded 20 valid recommendations in October 2026. Net sentiment stood at 0.60 in October 2026, up from 0.51 in July 2026. Its presence rate declined to 52.8% in October 2026 from 65.3% in July 2026, meaning its recommendations became more concentrated relative to its broader mention presence.

Largest Decline: The Recovery Village

The Recovery Village's valid recommendation coverage fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 4.2% in July 2026. The brand held the benchmark lead at baseline in July 2026 with 4.2% coverage and has not recorded a valid recommendation since. Its top-three rate and rank-one rate both fell to 0.0% in October 2026 from 2.8% in July 2026. Presence rate declined to 22.2% in October 2026 from 27.8% in July 2026. The move is within normal month-to-month variation.

Category Leader: Hazelden Betty Ford

Hazelden Betty Ford led the benchmark in October 2026 with 18.5% valid recommendation coverage. Its 20 valid recommendations exceeded the next highest brand, Caron Treatment Centers, which recorded 2 valid recommendations. Its coverage and placement rates rose beyond normal variation since July 2026, even as its presence rate declined over the same period, making it the only brand in the series classified as a significant riser on valid recommendation coverage.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand converted its recommendation coverage into first-position placements in October 2026?
• Why can two brands with identical coverage rates have very different top-three and rank-one outcomes?

Hazelden Betty Ford led the benchmark in both top-three and rank-one placement in October 2026. Its top-three rate of 14.8% and rank-one rate of 13.0% show that most of its recommendations placed it at the first position. Gateway Foundation and Recovery Centers of America each held 0.9% top-three rates in October 2026 with no rank-one placements. Caron Treatment Centers held 1.8% coverage but recorded no top-three or rank-one placements in October 2026.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. Caron Treatment Centers held higher coverage than Gateway Foundation and Recovery Centers of America in October 2026 yet recorded no top-three or rank-one placements, while Hazelden Betty Ford converted its coverage into a 13.0% rank-one rate.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes did the qualified observations cover?
• What types of buyer questions does the current public series not yet measure?

All qualified observations in both July and October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• How often did the coverage leader change across the available measurements?
• Does the available history support a stable trend or only period-by-period swings?

New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What does citation presence in AI responses actually tell us about why a brand was recommended?
• Which domains were cited most often across AI platforms, and how concentrated are those citations?

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 3,987 citations spanning 1,268 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed rather than concentrated, with the top 10 domains accounting for only 23.8% of all citations across 1,268 unique domains. Four tracked brands in the benchmark have their own domains in the top 10: americanaddictioncenters.org, therecoveryvillage.com, hazeldenbettyford.org, and recoverycentersofamerica.com. Official treatment center sites and health information portals dominate the cited sources, with recovery.com and addictioncenter.com representing third-party review and information directories, and no news or government sources appearing in the top 10.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone. It records the change; it does not establish why the change occurred.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral monthly benchmark tracking how AI and search surfaces recommend brands across canonical surface families. It is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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