Is inpatient medical alcohol detoxification justified: results of a randomized, controlled study.

The findings of this study revealed relatively few short-term outcome differences for patients meeting study criteria who were randomly assigned to either outpatient or inpatient medical detoxification. Given the higher costs of inpatient treatment, these findings suggest that outpatient detoxification be considered as a meaningful and cost-effective treatment for persons with mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal symptomatology.