Treatment outcomes with adult children of alcoholics: depression

This article describes an intervention study investigating treatment outcomes for college-age adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) exposed to group treatment. In this quasi-experimental design, ACOA subjects were randomly assigned to a psychotherapy group, a self-help group, or a control group. While group psychotherapy was as good a treatment modality as self-help groups in decreasing levels of depression, it was found that either of these group treatment modalities was effective in decreasing depression compared with the no treatment control. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to clinical nurse specialists.