Some factors affecting the likelihood of moderate drinking by treated alcoholics.

The 1-year outcome in alcoholics who participated in an outpatient alcoholism treatment program which stressed moderate drinking as the ultimate treatment goal was investigated. The results suggest that such an approach, in an otherwise conventional treatment program, is likely to result in a higher rate of moderate drinking and a lower rate of abstinence but not in a higher over-all recovery rate than a total-abstinence orientation.