Drug Rehab Centers: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which drug rehab brand leads AI recommendation coverage in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brand posted the largest coverage gain or decline this month?

Hazelden Betty Ford leads the Drug Rehab Centers benchmark in October 2026 with 19.8% valid recommendation coverage, up from 7.8% in July 2026. The next-highest valid recommendation coverage belongs to Recovery Centers of America at 3.3% in October 2026, up from 2.2% in July 2026, a gap of 16.5 percentage points to the leader.

The largest coverage increase came from Hazelden Betty Ford, rising from 7.8% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 19.8% in October 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. The largest coverage decline relative to the prior month came from Caron Treatment Centers, falling from 2.9% in September 2026 to 1.7% in October 2026, though this remains within normal variation. Recovery Centers of America's presence rate fell from 21.1% in July 2026 to 9.1% in October 2026.

Looking at the full series since July 2026, Hazelden Betty Ford moved from 7.8% in July 2026 to a peak of 22.1% in August 2026, dipped to 5.1% in September 2026, and rebounded to 19.8% in October 2026. Overall, the benchmark saw genuine movement this month, with one significant riser in Hazelden Betty Ford.

The benchmark began with 648 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 121 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth is the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

August 2026 sat between these two months with 127 qualified observations, 7.1% recommendation-shaped answer share, and 8.7% valid recommendation shortlist share. September 2026 recorded 136 qualified observations, 2.2% recommendation-shaped answer share, and 2.9% valid recommendation shortlist share.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations were collected, and how many qualified for the public benchmark?
• Why do brand-level percentages use the qualified observations instead of the raw collection?

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.

For full details, see the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which drug rehab brands lead on valid recommendation coverage, top-three rate, and rank-one rate?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ across the tracked brands?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended in the top three positions.
• Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: Positive minus negative sentiment among mentions, scaled by total mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which drug rehab brands gained or lost recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• What moved Hazelden Betty Ford's coverage beyond normal month-to-month variation?

Beyond the baseline comparison, Hazelden Betty Ford moved sharply in October 2026 relative to September 2026, rising from 5.1% to 19.8%, an increase of 14.7 points that is beyond normal month-to-month variation. Caron Treatment Centers has now declined in each of the two months since August 2026, from 3.9% to 2.9% to 1.7%. Recovery Centers of America rose from 0.7% in September 2026 to 3.3% in October 2026, a gain of 2.6 points. The Recovery Village rose from 0.0% in September 2026 to 2.5% in October 2026, a gain of 2.5 points.

Largest Increase: Hazelden Betty Ford

Hazelden Betty Ford posted the largest increase in valid recommendation coverage across the series, rising from 7.8% in July 2026 to 22.1% in August 2026, dipping to 5.1% in September 2026, and recovering to 19.8% in October 2026, a gain of 12.0 points since baseline that is beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence held relatively steady at 49.6% in October 2026 compared to 53.3% in July 2026. The top-three rate moved from 7.8% to 18.2% over the same period. The brand recorded 24 valid recommendations in October 2026. Its rank-one rate rose from 7.8% in July 2026 to 15.7% in October 2026, indicating a substantial share of first-position recommendations.

Category Leader: Hazelden Betty Ford

Hazelden Betty Ford leads the category with 19.8% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 7.8% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand widened from 5.6 points in July 2026 to 16.5 points in October 2026 as the brand's coverage expanded significantly.

Stable Brands

Most tracked brands held steady within normal month-to-month variation. American Addiction Centers, Banyan Treatment Centers, BrightView, Footprints to Recovery, Gateway Foundation, Phoenix House, Recovery Centers of America, and The Recovery Village all remained within expected ranges across the July-to-October series, though several recorded single-month swings.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ among the leading drug rehab brands?
• Can a brand have similar coverage to a rival but far fewer first-position recommendations?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands by valid recommendation coverage, placement patterns differ.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates: Hazelden Betty Ford appeared first in 15.7% of qualified observations in October 2026, while American Addiction Centers and Recovery Centers of America each recorded rank-one placements in less than 1% of observations.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes are measured in the current benchmark?
• Why are Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison not represented in the qualified observations?

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

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery only and contains no qualified observations for Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand has led recommendation coverage across every measured month?
• Which months showed the largest coverage swings in the series?

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What does source presence in the benchmark actually prove about AI recommendations?
• What types of evidence are retained for each prompt-level observation?

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.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response across all model versions and surfaces
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels such as brand-managed AI experiences
• Causality from metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often across AI platform responses in October 2026?
• How many of the top cited domains belong to tracked drug rehab brands?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 3,802 total citations spanning 1,195 unique domains.

Citations are relatively distributed across the top 10 domains, with the leading domain capturing 6.1% of all citations and no single domain exceeding 7%. Six of the top 10 domains are owned by tracked brands in this benchmark: americanaddictioncenters.org, therecoveryvillage.com, hazeldenbettyford.org, recoverycentersofamerica.com, and banyantreatmentcenter.com. The remaining domains include general search and commerce platforms alongside addiction-focused information sites, suggesting that AI recommendations draw from a mix of official brand properties, third-party directories, and broader web sources.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how brands appear and are recommended across leading AI and search surfaces. This neutral industry benchmark is built from prompt-level observations, with all metrics computed from a qualified public denominator.

• 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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