Alcoholics in interactional group therapy: an outcome study

Three interactional therapy groups of alcoholic patients (N = 20) were formed, and treatment outcome after eight months and again after 12 months of therapy was compared with the outcome of 17 neurotic patients in comparable therapy. Outcome assessment was obtained from three sources: patient, therapist, and independent judge, using both nomothetic and ideographic measures. The results indicated that although more alcoholic than neurotic patients terminated therapy within the first six sessions, a higher percentage of alcoholic patients remained in therapy for 12 months. At the end of 12 months, both samples had improved along a wide variety of variables, and there were no significant differences between the alcoholic and neurotic population in degree of improvement.