Helping people help themselves? Effectiveness of a self-help group for patients with alcohol use disorders-a pilot...

Peer-led self-help groups are increasingly popular, but research on their effectiveness and processes remains scarce. This pilot study aimed to investigate treatment outcome and the impact of Yalom's therapeutic factors in self-help groups for alcohol use disorders (AUDs).

A self-help (SH, n = 32) and a professional-led therapy group (GT, n = 19) were assessed over the course of 8 weeks using the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-11), and the Therapeutic Factors Inventory (TFI). Multi-level models were applied.

The increase in self-efficacy and therapeutic factors was higher in SH than in GT. The decrease in symptom distress did not differ. All results were adjusted for abstinence and prior experience with group treatment. In SH, moderate to large pre-post effect sizes were found, while GT yielded small effect sizes. Yalom's therapeutic factors correlated with positive treatment outcomes, but the examination of the cause-and-effect relationship was inconclusive.

This pilot study suggests that the effectiveness of self-help groups is comparable to that of professional-led therapy groups in the accompanying treatment of AUDs. However, the small and unbalanced sample, the open-group design, and the absence of consumption and relapse measures limited inference; larger, multi-site studies with balanced groups are warranted. This pilot study of 51 participants of a self-help and a professional-led therapy group provides preliminary evidence that self-help groups could play an important role in bridging the treatment gap for alcohol use disorders. Yalom's therapeutic factors, particularly instillation of hope and secure emotional expression, were found to be significantly associated with positive treatment outcome.