Social networks and recovery: one year after inpatient treatment

In an effort to understand the effect of social networks on outcome for treatment of alcoholism, a 1-year follow-up prospective study of 156 inpatients was undertaken. Treatment outcome was associated with diverse aspects of the social network: whether individuals were family, friends, or co-workers; the type of relationship--whether or not drinking together was part of social interaction; and the presence of social support, both perceived support and support through participation in treatment. Hierarchical path analysis using Lisrel 6 was used to analyze the data. The active support of co-workers not regularly drinking with the patient and the perceived support of co-workers without respect to their drinking were influential in recovery, exerting positive and negative effects, respectively. The indirect effect of other variables indicates that nondrinking and drinking family and friend relationships also exert positive and negative effects, respectively. The authors suggest that a major factor in recovery is the ability to elicit and receive support. Improving this ability may be a fruitful objective in treatment.