Alcoholism Treatment and Evaluation: In Search of Methods. II. Collation of Two-Year Follow-up Studies

Abstract

This study collated 23 articles reporting outcome of alcoholism treatment efforts over a 2-year follow-up period. Broad conclusions reached by Costello (1975) in a similar collation of studies reporting on a 1-year follow-up interval found general support. Similar consistencies were noted across studies within groups described as having good outcome profiles as was noted by the previous collation. Good outcome results from matching relatively better prognostic cases with programs with broad treatment resources. Multiple baselines were offered as guidelines for program evaluation. Baselines were generated in the process of collation by hierachal grouping of outcome profiles. Different baseline to measure effectiveness of performance should prove appropriate for different measuring tasks. No one baseline is appropriate for all measuring tasks.