A long-term follow-up evaluation of the Leicestershire community alcohol services: the effect of self-determined therapeutic goals for people with alcohol problems

The study of problematic drinking behaviour and related therapeutic provision is divided into two schools of thought: those who see problem drinkers as suffering from the disease of alcoholism and who should as such abstain, and those who see problem drinkers as differing from other people only in their drinking behaviour, and who could in principle learn to drink moderately. The Leicestershire Community Alcohol Services (L.C.A.S.) work with a neutral policy towards these two schools of thought and people with drinking problems are encouraged to determine their own therapeutic goals; they are free to attempt either abstinence or controlled drinking as they wish. This thesis examines the effectiveness of this therapeutic philosophy by comparing the long-term outcomes of the L.C.A.S. research subjects with another cohort reported in the literature who had been advised to abstain. In order to do this, interviews and all available information were sought in 1992/93 concerning 162 customers who had originally been assessed in 1981/82 as being in need of therapy from the L.C.A.S. The findings of this study indicate, within the limitations of the research design and the available data, that the L.C.A.S. long-term outcomes were indeed better in terms of both the incidence of abstinence and controlled drinking, in comparison with the study where abstinence alone was advocated.