[Short-term effects of acute inpatient treatment of alcoholics. A prospective, multicenter evaluation study]

In spite of a high prevalence of patients with alcohol addiction being treated in mental hospitals, the acute treatment of alcoholism has seldom been evaluated.

This follow-up study was conducted in five mental hospitals in northwestern Germany. Enrolled were 479 consecutively admitted patients, of whom 411 (86%) could be interviewed 3 months after discharge.

3 months after discharge, 60.5% of the intention-to-treat sample and 54% of the follow-up sample had relapsed. Twenty-eight percent had taken part in inpatient rehabilitation programmes, and 26.5% had had at least one further inpatient withdrawal treatment. There were highly significant reductions in quantity of consumed alcohol, numbers of drinking days, and numbers of intoxication days. Multivariate analyses revealed that biographical, social, and treatment-related items were predictors of unfavourable outcome (excessive alcohol consumption and/or readmission to inpatient treatment). A short length of stay was identified as a predictor of unfavourable health status after 3 months.

For many patients, inpatient acute treatment is an effective intervention which promotes abstinence, reduces alcohol consumption, and enhances integration into the addiction treatment system. For chronically addicted and repeat patients, this treatment as a repetitive crisis intervention helps in the short term but does not result in lasting changes in the course of illness.