Psychosocial approaches to alcohol use disorders since 1940: a review

A review of psychosocial approaches to alcohol use disorders (AUDs) was performed to identify and contextualize trends in major treatment approaches and special populations and provide possible future directions for alcohol research.

The PsycINFO database was searched for peer-reviewed articles relevant to psychosocial approaches to AUDs for each decade since the 1940s, resulting in approximately 4,246 articles for review. Topics were included if they made up at least 4% of the relevant articles for any one decade. Nine treatment and seven special population topics were identified for the current review.

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic and aversion therapies were major topics in the 1940s and 1950s, but few articles have been published recently. Other topics have shown consistent representation in the literature, including criminal justice and military populations, self-help groups, group therapies, couples and family therapies, behavioral treatments and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and complementary/ alternative treatments. The majority of the specific population topics and two newer treatment approaches have appeared more recently in significant proportions, including adolescents, college students, women, ethnic minorities, and dually diagnosed populations; newer treatments include brief interventions and motivational interviewing approaches.

The number of articles on psychosocial approaches to AUDs has been increasing since the 1940s. There have been recent surges in alcohol research on specific populations, an increase in the integration of alcohol treatment with primary care, and a continued emphasis on empirically supported and cost-effective treatments for AUDs; these trends likely will continue into the future.