Some factors affecting the likelihood of moderate drinking by treated alcoholics.

Abstract

A 1 yr follow-up was conducted of 96 alcoholics (mean age 44; 12 women) who had attended an outpatient alcoholism program which emphasized moderate drinking as the ultimate therapeutic goal. Each patient was interviewed about his drinking behavior during the 1st phase of treatment and again 1 yr later. Before treatment the patients drank the equivalent of a mean of 17.1 oz of absolute alcohol/drinking day, after treatment, 11.2 oz (P < .001). Changes in consumption per drinking day tended to be accompanied by corresponding changes in number of drinking days. Of the 96 patients 9 were abstainers and 18 were moderate drinkers after treatment. (Moderate drinking was defined as an average consumption of 2.5 oz of alcohol or less per drinking day.) The other 69 patients continued to drink above the moderate level though usually less than before treatment. Of the 18 moderate drinkers 9 drank less than twice a week, 6 drank 2-3 time/wk and 3 drank almost daily; the alcohol intake on these occasions was usually less than 2 oz. Patients whose pretreatment consumption was below median (i.e., 12.9 oz of alcohol/drinking day or less) were more likely to become moderate drinkers than those with higher consumption. A moderate drinking approach with unselected alcoholic patients in an otherwise conventional treatment program is likely to result in a lower rate of total abstinence and a higher rate of moderate drinking than a total abstinence orientation, but not in a higher over-all recovery rate. Better results might be obtained through a selective application of the 2 orientations: moderate drinking for patients with comparatively low pretreatment consumption levels and total abstinence for those with higher consumption.