MATCHING TREATMENT TO ALCOHOLISM SUBTYPES

In the field of alcoholism treatment, as in mental health treatment mo re generally, no one treatment model is equally effective for all pati ents and problem types. A review of the literature in both alcohol tre atment and in psychotherapy research suggests some relationships in co mmon between treatment efficacy and patient coping style, drinking pat terns, and family dynamics. This literature suggests that ''internaliz ing'' alcoholics, whose drinking tends to be steady and to be function ally interwoven with family dynamics, will benefit more from family-sy stems oriented treatments than from symptom- or individual focused tre atments. Conversely, ''externalizing'' alcoholics may derive more bene fit from symptom-focused cognitive and behavioral treatments than from family systems treatment. We describe an ongoing research project des igned to test these hypotheses and the development of treatment manual s that may increase differential treatment efficacy.