Efficacy of relapse prevention: A meta-analytic review

Although relapse prevention (RP) has become a widely adopted cognitive-beha vioral treatment intervention for alcohol, smoking, and other substance use , outcome studies have yielded an inconsistent picture of the efficacy of t his approach or conditions for maximal effectiveness. A meta-analysis was p erformed to evaluate the overall effectiveness of RP and the extent to whic h certain variables may relate to treatment outcome. Twenty-six published a nd unpublished studies with 70 hypothesis tests representing a sample of 9, 504 participants were included in the analysis. Results indicated that RP w as generally effective, particularly for alcohol problems. Additionally, ou tcome was moderated by several variables. Specifically, RP was most effecti ve when applied to alcohol or polysubstance use disorders, combined with th e adjunctive use of medication, and when evaluated immediately following tr eatment using uncontrolled pre-post tests.