Early and late improvement in a two-year out-patient alcoholic treatment programme

The process of improvement was studied in a 2-year out-patient programme for alcoholics. The drop-out rate was 16%. The analysis was based on recurrent evaluations of treatment contracts including both drinking pattern and psycho-social treatment objectives. Background data were related to the alcohol adjustment during the first but not during the second year of treatment. Subjects with favourable background characteristics showed an early improvement of drinking pattern but few psycho-social changes. In contrast, subjects whose improvement in drinking behaviour occurred during the second year of treatment showed improvement in their psycho-social adjustment already during the first year. All subjects with an early stable improvement were type 1 alcoholics according to the Cloninger-Bohman typology while the majority of those who improved during the later part of the treatment period were type 2 alcoholics.