Developments in alcoholism treatment research: patient-treatment matching

This article describes patient-treatment matching, a recent advance in alcoholism treatment research. A general description of the concept is presented and the challenges patient-treatment matching poses for investigators and for treatment providers are described. Project MATCH, a multisite clinical trial designed to test the matching hypothesis is used to illustrate approaches to addressing the research challenge. Two additional avenues of promising patient-treatment matching research, one relating to patient characteristics and the other to pharmacological treatments, are also summarized. The article concludes with a brief prescription for individual providers to implement and test treatment matching strategies in their own clinical practice.