What is Relapse? A Contemporary Exploration of Treatment of Alcoholism

Abstract

In clinical settings, clients treated for alcohol abuse or dependency often engage with multiple service providers. Nonstandardized definitions for treatment outcome obscure treatment success. Using content analysis and preestablished selection criteria on a set of alcohol treatment outcome studies conducted between 1990 and 2006, we evaluated the definition of relapse using a typology derived from an interrater agreement analysis. The interrater agreement was good and the modal category indicated that a multifaceted operationalization was most often used to indicate success. Key to standardizing treatment success might be inclusion of multiple domains of life function in defining relapse.

KEYWORDS:

• alcohol treatment
• relapse
• treatment outcomes