Outcome with alcoholics seeking treatment voluntarily or after confrontation by their employer

Treatment results with 370 alcoholics who sought treatment after being threatened with dismissal by their employers were compared with results with 58 alcoholics who sought treatment voluntarily. Data indicated that voluntary clients were experiencing significantly greater problems in a wide range of psychosocial areas when they entered treatment than were mandatory clients, whereas mandatory clients had a poorer work record in terms of productivity and drinking behavior interfering with work. After treatment, however, there were few differences between the groups in terms of psychosocial behavior, work performance and drinking behavior. The results suggest that coercion is a useful tool in inducing alcoholics to seek treatment, since outcome with mandatory clients is similar to that with voluntary clients and since it is likely that few of the mandatory clients would have sought treatment without pressure from their employers.