Alcoholism: abstinence, improvement, and no improvement in general population

Traditionally, in the field of alcoholism research, abstinence has been considered the sole measure of treatment success and patients found to be drinking at follow-up were automatically considered to be treatment failures. In recent years this dichotomous approach has been criticized in light of studies on post-treatment status that reveal patients to be drinking and functioning at an improved level. Although there has been a convergence of evidence indicating that some treated alcoholics progress toward an improved but not abstinent status, such improvement in drinking status had apparently not previously been investigated in a general population. Such was the purpose of the present study with 529 subjects. Of the persons who reported previous alcoholic drinking level from 49% to 63% reported current subcriterion drinking. It was inferred that these findings combine with the findings from treated alcoholic and other special populations to form a more pervasive perspective of movement from alcoholic to subalcoholic drinking levels. Although the authors see some overlap with the topic of moderate drinking oriented treatment programs, they view specific recommendations as premature.