SKILLS TRAINING AND PREDICTION OF FOLLOW-UP STATUS FOR CHRONIC ALCOHOL-DEPENDENT INPATIENTS

At a long-term alcohol treatment facility in Norway, 15 chronic alcoho l dependent inpatients (one woman) completed six weeks of coping skill s training groups in the middle of their eight months (mean) of inpati ent treatment. Group participants showed significant decreases (prepos t) in total scores on the SCI-90. Correspondingly significant increase s in self-efficacy to withstand relapse were shown on DiClemente et al .'s (1983) Self-Efficacy self-report measure. No significant changes o n Beck's Depression Inventory were found. Pretest scores were also obt ained on 11 dropouts from the programme. Follow-up interviews and bloo d tests of liver functioning were obtained on an overage 16.5 months a fter discharge for 11 of the 15 former completers (73%) and from 4 of the 11 dropouts (36%). Patients' pretest and post-test self-efficacy s cores significantly predicted follow-up status, but only post-test sco res correlated highly with follow-up status ((r) under bar=-.89), whil e pretest scores showed only a moderate correlation ((r) under bar=-.6 5).