Alcoholics anonymous and relapse prevention as maintenance strategies after conjoint behavioral alcohol treatment for men: 18-month outcomes.
Ninety men with alcohol problems and their female partners were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 outpatient conjoint treatments: alcohol behavioral couples therapy (ABCT), ABCT with relapse prevention techniques (RP/ABCT), or ABCT with interventions encouraging Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) involvement (AA/ABCT). Couples were followed for 18 months after treatment. Across the 3 treatments, drinkers who provided follow-up data maintained abstinence on almost 80% of days during follow-up, with no differences in drinking or marital happiness outcomes between groups. AA/ABCT participants attended AA meetings more often than ABCT or RP/ABCT participants, and their drinking outcomes were more strongly related to concurrent AA attendance. For the entire sample, AA attendance was positively related to abstinence during follow-up in both concurrent and time-lagged analyses. In the RP/ABCT treatment, attendance at posttreatment booster sessions was related to posttreatment abstinence. Across treatment conditions, marital happiness was related positively to abstinence in concurrent but not time-lagged analyses.
Center of Alcohol Studies, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. bmccrady@rci.rutgers.edu.
Barbara S
BS
McCrady
Elizabeth E
EE
Epstein
Christopher W
CW
Kahler
D000328:Adult; D000436:Alcoholics Anonymous; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D017004:Codependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D013695:Temperance; D016896:Treatment Outcome