Long-term naturalistic studies of addicts have revealed four types of nonmedical community interventions that facilitate self-care and relapse prevention. The first is external unavoidable community supervision, such as an employee-assistance program that is connected with the alcoholic’s place of work and requires the alcoholic to participate in order to stay employed. The second consists of substitutes for the addiction that behaviorally compete with it, such as compulsive hobbies, weight gain, or increased smoking. The third is what Carl Jung called the “protective wall of human community,” which is found, for example, in therapeutic and religious communities or in new love relationships. Obviously, such interactions can also create substitute dependences. Unfortunately, because of the alcoholic’s past behaviour toward his or her family, old relationships often are less valuable for relapse prevention than new ones. The fourth community intervention is a deepening spiritual commitment that often facilitates successful abstinence. In this vein it is useful to reflect that faith communities (e.g., Islam and Mormonism) have been successful in promoting lifelong abstinence, in contrast to governmental interventions such as the American experiment with prohibition.

A notable example that combines these last two types of community intervention is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). A voluntary fellowship of men and women, AA enables its members to share their common experiences in a spiritual setting and to help each other become and stay sober. AA was founded in the United States in 1935 by two alcoholics, Robert Holbrook Smith and William Griffith Wilson, both of whom had been strongly influenced by a spiritual revival movement called the Oxford Group. The members of AA strive to follow the “12 Steps,” a nonsectarian spiritual program that includes reliance on God—or any “higher power” as understood by each individual—to help prevent a relapse into drinking. It also includes self-examination; personal acknowledgment of, confession of, and taking responsibility for the harm caused by the member’s alcohol-related behaviour; and assistance to other alcoholics in trying to abstain. At meetings members narrate the stories of their alcoholic experiences and their recovery in AA. Today AA is a worldwide community of more than two million. The fellowship is organized in local groups of indeterminate size, has no dues, and accepts contributions for its expenses only from those who attend meetings. Affiliation of the fellowship or of its groups with churches, politics, fund-raising, or powerful leaders is strongly discouraged by AA’s “12 Traditions.” Existing research suggests that finding a sponsor, joining a home group, asking others for help when fearing relapse, providing service to others, and striving for a more spiritual life all appear to help sustain abstinence.

Paradoxically, severity of alcoholism often facilitates both abstinence and AA involvement. Just as many individuals do not adopt an effective program of weight reduction and exercise until after their first heart attack or accept a hip replacement until severely disabled, so the more symptomatic alcoholics are more prone than other alcoholics to join AA.

AA apparently meets deep-seated needs among its members. It enables them to associate with kindred sufferers who understand them, and it helps them to accept the disease concept of alcoholism, to admit their powerlessness over alcohol and their need for help, and to depend—without shame or stigma—on others. The 12 Steps provide a regimented, concrete training program that supports responsibility for self-care and relapse prevention. The fellowship of AA also provides community supervision and substitute gratifying behaviours (e.g., around-the-clock meetings on holidays) that compete with relapse to alcohol dependence.

Professionals in the field of alcoholism now regard AA as, at worst, an inexpensive addition to any therapeutic regimen and, at best, the relapse-prevention technique of choice. AA has spawned allied but independent organizations, including Al-Anon, for spouses and other close relatives and friends of alcoholics, and Alateen, for their adolescent children. The aim of such related groups is to help the members learn how to be helpful and to forgive alcoholic relatives.

AA groups, found in more than 150 countries, resemble each other and generally use the same “approved” literature (including translations) published by its central office in New York City. AA members include felons and physicians, young and old, minorities and atheists, and Catholics, Buddhists, and Hindus as well as Protestants. There are always some variations in style and conduct among AA groups, each of which is autonomous. In some countries, AA groups are sponsored by or affiliated with national temperance societies or accept financial support from government health agencies, but this is not encouraged by AA’s central office.

Results of treatment

The success of treatment in any behavioral or personality disorder is always difficult to appraise, and this also is true of alcoholism. Some clinicians believe that one or another of the therapies discussed in this section works better for certain patients, but such beliefs have not been demonstrated by experiment. It is possible that the most effective therapy is the one in which the therapist or the patient most believes. This factor of subjectivity may account for the inferior results achieved in controlled experiments contrasting different treatments compared with uncontrolled reports of alcohol treatment. The effects of new treatments tend to be reported enthusiastically; later, critical examination of the results and controlled studies usually diminish the claims. Follow-up studies of treated alcoholics have often been too brief to determine whether or not lasting results have been achieved, or the investigators have failed to locate a substantial portion of the former patients. Moreover, the measures of “success” are inconsistent. Some investigators regard only total abstinence as a successful outcome; others are satisfied if the frequency of drinking bouts is lessened or if the patient’s self-destructive behaviour or harm to others is reduced.