Controlled drinkers in comparison to abstinents and relapsed drinkers with regard to attitudes and social adjustment.

Referring to previous research and theoretical reflections the hypothesis was formulated that controlled drinkers follow a different model of alcoholism and its therapy than abstinents or relapsed drinkers. The patients of an abstinence-oriented program (N = 187) were interviewed at times between 1 1/2 and 4 1/2 years after treatment. According to their self-classification, three outcome groups were formed which were highly significantly differentiated by two discriminant functions. Symptom measures and subjective improvement following treatment had the highest coefficients on the first discriminant function, whereas the attitude toward alcoholism had the highest coefficients on the second one. On the first discriminant function the abstinents had the highest score, followed by the controlled drinkers and the relapsed ones. The differences between the three groups are significant. However, the difference between abstinents and controlled drinkers is due to the direct evaluation of therapy; the social adjustment measures do not differ between these two groups. On the second discriminant function the centroid of controlled drinkers stands out very much against the centroids of abstinents and relapsed drinkers, which are similar. Consequences are discussed.