[Ambulatory management of chronic alcoholism]

Alcoholism frequently goes undiagnosed in day-to-day medical practice because the possibility of successfully treating alcoholics on an out-patient basis is too little known. Concepts of how alcoholism arises usually relate to an isolated individual and, therefore, do not cover the whole reality of this multifactorial disease. Treatment in a "social network" presupposes that the patient's problems are understood as disturbed interactions with his environment. With this concept in mind it is possible to approach the essential conditions of the disease. 484 patients have been treated according to this program. 352 (72.7%) were followed up for an average of 8.3 years (range 2--19 years). 37.4% were in complete remission, 33.7 had markedly improved and 28.9% were unchanged or worse.