[Training in mutual communication of married couples addicted to alcohol (author's transl)]

The article reports on the planning and realization of a two-weeks' therapeutic recreation programme involving addicts and their partners. Twelve couples participated, of whom 10 men and 4 women were addicts (alcohol and drugs) who had just completed a successful four-months' withdrawal treatment course on an inpatient basis. The aim was to change partnership interaction patterns via systematic training of communication rules according to a sort of "model" design. Tape playback and group feedback techniques were used. The result of this communication training was greater mutual frankness of the partners. The positive results of this type of married-couple therapy encouraged the authors to institutionalize concomitant communication therapy in collaboration with the couples themselves during inpatient withdrawal treatment.