The differing requirements of collateral clients and primary alcohol users in outpatient treatment

Treatment data were collected on 134 clients of the Alcohol Counseling and Education Program, Taunton, Massachusetts: 31 of these clients were collateral clients; 103, primary users. Short-term improvements in the emotional status (i.e., improvements that occurred within the period of treatment) of collateral clients seem dependent upon different treatment modalities than do those of primary users. Collateral clients seem, on the one hand, responsive to individual counseling; primary users, on the other, to group (including self-help, Alcoholics Anonymous) therapy.