Prognosis in alcoholic rehabilitation: the relative significance of social, psychological, and medical factors.

The aim was to elucidate the relative importance of a wide range of patient characteristics (social, psychological, and medical factors) in prediction of alcoholic posttreatment functioning. The development of working capacity was recorded for 34 advanced alcoholics during 2 years subsequent to rehabilitation. The results indicated that external social characteristics, psychiatric symptoms, and alcohol-related medical symptoms were almost insignificant as predictors. However, two groups of significant psychological factors emerged (loneliness-low self-esteem, together with indolence-lassitude). The few social predictors indicated that the way of using alcohol (more extraverted and observable) was associated with a negative prognosis.