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[Results after two years of an alcoholic rehabilitation program]
D Bunout1, P de la Maza, S Hirsch
1Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentosy, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Background:
Alcoholism is a serious public health problem in Chile and the best treatment strategy for this problem is far from being clear.
Aim:
To assess the long term results of an alcoholism rehabilitation program.
Patients And Methods:
One hundred eighty two alcoholics admitted for treatment of their alcoholism were followed during two years in a special clinic. The effects of length of alcoholism, withdrawal symptoms on admission and the presence of histological liver damage on long term outcome were assessed using life table analysis.
Results:
During the two years period, 75% of patients were lost from control and 63% relapsed in their alcoholic ingestion. None of the above mentioned parameters had an effect on relapse or loss from follow up.
Conclusions:
There are high attrition and failure rates and the length of alcoholism, degree of initial withdrawal and liver damage do not influence the long term results of this program.