Behavioural therapy strategies in outpatient alcoholism treatment

Outpatient alcoholism treatment programs are widespread especially in the U nited States and in Great Britain. However, there still exist only a few ex perimental studies investigating the numerous questions arising from this f ield. In this still ongoing project 120 patients were randomly assigned to 3 different outpatient group therapy programs: unspecific supportive therap y and 2 forms of behavioural therapy - coping skills training [17] and cogn itive therapy according to Beck [2]. The main hypotheses to be tested are t hat both forms of behavioural therapy will prove superior to supportive tre atment and that patients with a comorbidity of personality disorders will p rofit in a different way from these differentiated intervention strategies. Treatment lasted 6 months; first results obtained after the termination of this period demonstrate the feasibility of the study design; patients unde rgoing behavioural therapy showed good compliance with few drop-outs and si gnificantly higher rates of abstinence compared with supportive therapy. 60 % of the patients suffer from a concomitant personality disorder (mostly of the dependent, insecure, and masochistic type). Nevertheless, statisticall y significant differences between the 2 behavioural therapy techniques coul d not be established; a positive correlation between personality disorders and relapse or attrition could be confirmed only for relapses occurring wit hin the first 3 months of treatment.