Heavy drinking, alcohol-dependent vs. nondependent methadone-maintenance clients: a follow-up study.

This study of methadone-maintenance clients interviewed approximately 1 year after discharge from treatment revealed that outcomes differed between heavy-drinking clients who are alcohol dependent and those who are not. Alcohol-dependent clients seem to benefit more from treatment but continue to have severe cocaine-use problems, suggesting they also may be cocaine dependent. The results emphasized the value in differentiating between these types of drinking clients, and they suggest that failure to do so may account for earlier contradictory results about the role alcohol consumption has in treatment outcomes for methadone-maintenance clients.