Effectiveness of outpatient treatment for people with alcohol problems

Efficacy tests and quality assurance are now required and carried out in all sub-areas of medicine. On the one hand, they allow a transparent presentation of treatment results to financial backers, on the other hand, they allow the identification of weaknesses and improvement potentials, from which concrete measures for change can be derived. For the outpatient treatment of persons with alcohol problems in Switzerland, no meaningful results on their long-term effectiveness are yet available. 
 

The effectiveness of outpatient treatment for people with alcohol problems will be investigated in a catamnestic study with interviews at the start of treatment, at the end of treatment and 6 and 12 months after the end of treatment. 

The participants in the study are approximately 1200 people who, within one year, begin treatment at the Zurich specialist centre for alcohol problems, the "Aargauische Stiftung Suchthilfe" (Aargau Addiction Aid Foundation) or the Counselling Centre for the District of Baden or the Bernese Health Service. All persons with alcohol problems who begin treatment in one of the above-mentioned counselling centres within this period are invited to participate in the study. At the end of treatment, as well as 6 and 12 months after the end of treatment, a written follow-up survey is carried out by means of a questionnaire, and in the event of unavailability, a structured telephone interview is conducted. The central result criteria are the alcohol consumption recorded by AUDIT-C and the life satisfaction recorded by the life satisfaction questions (FLZ).

The data collected provide meaningful results on the long-term effectiveness of outpatient treatment for people with alcohol problems. Furthermore, these data allow statements on the differential effectiveness of outpatient treatment depending on socio-demographic variables (e.g. age, gender, education), variables of alcohol consumption (e.g. amount consumed at entry, alcohol consumption target) and variables of treatment (e.g. duration of treatment, number of sessions, follow-up treatment). They make it possible to identify predictors of effective treatment and to derive from them possible improvements for outpatient alcohol treatment.