Different therapies can work for alcoholism

New York - The research team with the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial (UKATT) compared two approaches to helping people with alcoholism, and found that they were equally beneficial and cost-effective.

Specifically, the study looked at "social behavior and network therapy" and the more established "motivational enhancement therapy."

"Motivational enhancement is an alcohol-focused treatment that works on people's motivation to change their behavior, which is a quite well-known and well-researched intervention," Dr. Christine Godfrey of the University of York told Reuters Health.

"Social behavior and network therapy is more person-centered," she explained, which helps provide patients with better social environments and alternative activities. "It gets them to think about who they associate with, and how their network can help them in changing their behavior."

Social behavior and network therapy involves eight 50-minute sessions, while motivational enhancement involves three sessions.

For the two UKATT studies reported in the British Medical Journal, 52 therapists at seven treatment sites were randomly assigned to training in one of the two treatment approaches.

The investigators then recruited adult subjects with alcohol problems who were assigned to one of the two treatments; 617 of 742 subjects remained in the trial at follow-up a year later.

The investigators found that the effectiveness of the therapies was similar. Total drinking was reduced by 45 percent at 12 months, while alcohol-related problems had decreased by 50 percent.

"In terms of therapist time and their training, social behavior and networking cost a bit more than motivational enhancement," Godfrey said. "But when we looked at how these therapies impacted on things like health care costs, social services, and contact with the criminal justice system, social behavior and networking saved rather more than motivational therapy."

"When we put all those together there's no difference in cost-effectiveness," she added.

In fact, both therapies save about five times as much as they initially cost, overall.

"So we now have two evidence-based treatment that we know work with a UK population," Godfrey said. "This gives agencies a better menu of treatments they can try until we find evidence that clearly suggests people will do better with one treatment than the other." -- Reuters

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