Therapy preference and treatment outcome in clients with mild to moderate alcohol dependence

The Brief Treatment Programme for Alcohol Dependence allocated 122 clients randomly to three different forms of brief therapy. Prior to allocation clients were asked what their preference would have been had allocation not been random. This study posed the question: did clients receiving their preferred treatment have a better outcome than those who did not? Also examined were differences in the treatment process variables of perceived effectiveness, satisfaction, rapport, engagement and number of sessions attended. The results were that there was no difference in either outcome or treatment process according to whether or not clients were allocated to their treatment of preference. It is concluded that these findings reinforce both the ethicality of the randomized controlled trial as a methodology for examining differential treatment outcomes in individual brief treatment of between one and five sessions for alcohol dependence and the validity of these findings as they might relate to real clinical settings. Finally, it is suggested that other researchers consider the inclusion of questions related to client preference.