Alcoholism treatment in the United States - An overview

On any given day, more than 700,000 people in the United States receive alc oholism treatment in either inpatient or outpatient settings. For many of t hose patients, detoxification-with or without pharmacotherapy-is the first step of treatment. The major behavioral approaches currently used in alcoho lism treatment include cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational enhanceme nt therapy, and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or related 12-step programs. Clin ical studies, such as the project MATCH trial, have compared the effectiven ess of these approaches. Overall, that study detected no significant differ ences among the three treatments in patient outcome, although certain treat ment methodologies may be most appropriate for patients with certain charac teristics. Pharmacotherapy with aversive or anticraving medications may sup plement behavioral treatment approaches. Brief interventions that are deliv ered by primary health care providers also have been shown to reduce drinki ng levels, particularly in nondependent drinkers.