Effective Short-Term Treatment Modalities for Primary Users and Significant Others in Outpatient Treatment

Abstract

Treatment data were anlyzed on 134 clients of the Alcohol Counseling and Education Program, Taunton, MA. One hudnred three of these clients were primary users; 31, significant other. Short-term improvements (i.e., improvements that occurred within the treatment period) in four measured attributes-sobriety, emotional status, employment status and family situation-as well as in an index of overall improvement suggest not only that different treatment modalities are more appropriate for different kinds of improvement, but also that different treatment modalitites may be effective for primary users and significant others. In terms of the index of overall improvement used in this study, for instance, primary users appear responsive to Anonlymous-group referrals, wheras significant others appear to be responsive to individual counseling alone.