Long-term effects of group and individual social skills training with alcoholics.

Abstract

This study examined the short and long term effects of group and individual Social Skills Training (SST) compared to Traditional Supportive Theraphy (TST) on 32 chronic alcoholics. Four groups of matched subjects received 24 hrs of either group or individual SST or group and individual TST. Changes in alcohol intake, various social skills and personality were measured pre- and post-treatment (3, 6, and 12 months following treatment). SST trained subjects improved significantly more than subjects receiving TST on all measures throughout the 12 months period. Also, subjects receiving group SST scored consistently better than those receiving individual SST on all measures except on the alcohol intake and some personality measures. The inmplications are (i) that group SST produces faster improvement in social skills and equivalent reduction in alcohol consumption than individually trained subjects, (ii) that SST produces significantly larger reduction of alcohol consumption and bigger improvement in social skills than TST procedures, whether subjects are treated in a group or individually.