title: Outcomes for untreated individuals involved in randomized trials of alcohol treatment.
abstract: Summarizing the relative effects of different treatments for alcohol use disorders is challenging because there is no standard treatment against which experimental treatments can be contrasted and comparisons to no-treatment control groups are rare. As alternative reference points, we examined outcomes and improvement for untreated participants (i.e., those in wait-list, no-treatment, and placebo conditions) in randomized trials of alcohol treatment over the last three decades. At followup, the average abstinence rate was 21% (n = 17 studies) and the mean level of alcohol consumption was 31 drinks per week (n = 29 studies). The reduction in drinking from baseline was.19 of a SD unit, or a 14% decrease from a baseline mean of 37 drinks per week (n = 17 studies). These values provide approximations of success and improvement that an active treatment for alcohol use disorders should surpass to be considered more beneficial than no treatment.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Care Evaluation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, MPD-152, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. anne.mayer@suntsb.edu
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moyer
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Finney
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D035061:Control Groups; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012016:Reference Values