Abstract: Objective In the field of drug abuse treatment,clients' motivation for treatment refers to their willingness and readiness to change drug abuse behaviors and to be involved in treatment.Since the mid-1970s,scientists had achieved a lot in researches on the motivation,including the development of theoretical construct and assessment scales,the confirmation of relationship between clients' motivation and drug abuse treatment process and outcome,the discovery of factors influencing clients' motivation for drug abuse treatment,and the development of many effective motivational interventions,such as motivational interviewing and motivation enhancement therapy.This paper summarized results of these studies to provide references for future researches.