Effectiveness of alcoholism treatment in partial versus inpatient settings: twenty-four month outcomes

The authors examined the effectiveness of the partial hospital setting, in contrast to the inpatient setting, for the rehabilitation of alcohol abusers and alcoholics. Outcomes after 24 months in five life health areas indicated marked improvement from baseline for the entire follow-up period on almost all measures. There also was a strong relationship between drinking outcomes and outcomes in the other health areas. Although there were few between group differences on the clinical outcome measures, differences which were found favored the partial hospital setting. Furthermore, cost of treatment over two years clearly favored the partial hospital.