A clinical-interactive approach to alcoholism treatment evaluation.

This presentation is concerned with a particular approach to empirical evaluation of psychologically-oriented alcoholism treatment which offers hope for results that are more relevant to clinical applications than has been the case with past empirical research. This particular approach has been termed, for want of a better term, a "clinical-interactive" one for two reasons. First, the psychological makeup of alcoholic patients and the experiential nature of the treatment process they undergo constitute much of the focus of investigation, providing more vivid conceptual bridges to clinical applications. Second, treatment is conceived of as a result of the interaction between the nature of the patient and the patient's experienced involvement in various aspects of the treatment process and openness to continued treatment involvement, rather than as categorically different formal treatment procedures. In what follows, the utility of this approach will be illustrated with respect to the sort of prediction models applicable to alcoholism treatment as explored in a pilot study.