Alcohol use disorders and the Division 12 Task Force of the American Psychological Association

The Division 12 Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures promulgated guidelines to identify treatments with empirical sup port for effectiveness. No treatment for alcohol abuse or dependence was ra ted as efficacious; 4 treatments for other drug use disorders were rated "p robably efficacious." The alcohol treatment research community has question ed why alcohol treatments with strong empirical support are not in the task force's list. This article presents results of the application of task for ce standards to 13 major psychosocial alcohol treatments viewed as having s trong empirical support. Brief intervention and relapse prevention met task force criteria for "efficacious" treatments. However, in 1996, when the ta sk force last published a List of empirically supported treatments (D. L. C hambless et al., 1996), there were insufficient published studies meeting t ask force criteria for these 2 treatments. Motivational enhancement met cri teria to be rated "probably efficacious.".