A 2‐Year Follow‐Up of 120 Swedish Female Alcoholics Treated Early in Their Drinking Career: Prediction of Drinking Outcome

Abstract

One hundred twenty women alcoholics recruited to a treatment program called EWA (Early Treatment for Women With Alcohol Addiction) were studied. The selected women were not previously treated for alcohol abuse. The women were followed up by use of a structured personal interview, biomarkers sensitive for alcohol abuse (i.e., glutamyl transpeptidase), and questionnaires, by using defined criteria for abstinence, social drinking, satisfactory drinking outcome, and unsatisfactory drinking outcome. Drinking outcome was good (i.e., total abstinence, social drinking, or satisfactory drinking outcome) for 67% of the women during the total follow-up time, by use of strict criteria for relapse. The results were corroborated by the biomarkers. Similar results were reported from two previously studied groups of women from the same department. However, the frequency of abstinence was higher and social drinking was significantly lower among this sample of women. Daily drinking, the use of sedatives, and a long duration of pretreatment alcohol abuse predicted an unfavorable outcome. However, a long duration of outpatient treatment predicted a good outcome, whereas treatment dropout was related to an unsatisfactory drinking outcome. A majority of the women (96%) rated the treatment experience and the treatment program favorably. The overall good results might reflect the selection of the subjects studied. Improving treatment program adherence would probably improve outcome for the women with an unsatisfactory drinking outcome.