6-MONTH AND 12-MONTH ABSTINENCE RATES IN INPATIENT ALCOHOLICS TREATEDWITH EITHER FARADIC AVERSION OR CHEMICAL AVERSION COMPARED WITH MATCHED INPATIENTS FROM A TREATMENT REGISTRY

Two hundred forty-nine patients who were treated for alcoholism in an inpatient multimodal treatment program that included aversion therapy were matched post hoc on 17 baseline variables with patients from a na tional treatment outcome registry. The latter patients received inpati ent treatment that emphasized individual and group counseling as the p rimary therapeutic elements but did not include aversion therapy for a lcohol. Six- and 12-month abstinence rates from alcohol and all mood-a ltering chemicals are reported. The patients treated with aversion the rapy for alcohol had higher alcohol abstinence rates at 6 and 12 month s (p < 0.01). The abstinence rates from all mood-altering chemicals we re higher in the aversion group at 6 months (p < 0.05) but not at 12 m onths. These comparisons pooled faradic aversion and chemical aversion results. In order to determine whether or not the faradic aversion ga ve comparable results to the chemical aversion, the two groups were se parately analyzed. No significant differences in outcome were found. I n fact, the faradic aversion group showed a slight (nonsignificant) in crease in abstinence rate.