@article{ref1,
title="Alcoholism: a long-term follow-up study of participants in an alcohol treatment programme",
journal="Alcohol and alcoholism",
year="1997",
author="Shaw, G. K. and Waller, S. and Latham, C. J. and Dunn, G. and Thomson, A. D.",
volume="32",
number="4",
pages="527-535",
abstract="This paper reports the results of a long-term follow-up study of 112 alcoholic patients admitted to an intensive 1-month residential programme. Outcomes at the 6-month and 1-year stages were reported in an earlier paper [G. K. Shaw et al. (1990) British Journal of Psychiatry 157, 190-196]. The length of the follow-up period in this study was an average of 9 years. Eighteen patients had died before the long-term follow-up stage, and of the remaining 94 a total of 60 patients were followed up. This study shows that major improvements on social, psychological and drinking behaviour measures, made at 6 months and 1 year follow-up, were, on the whole, maintained and there was a progressive improvement on most variables at each follow-up stage. Major improvements were achieved by those patients whose drinking was categorized as 'abstinent', 'controlled' and 'improved'. The proportion of patients categorized as 'unchanged' dropped from 43% at 6 months to 33% at 1 year and to 15% at 9 years. By the 1-year follow-up stage, the unchanged group showed deterioration on psychological variables such as neuroticism, self-esteem and satisfaction with life situations, continued to make use of health service resources, and the high level of alcohol-related physical and social complications remained unchanged. This group had similar results at long-term follow-up with the exception of neuroticism, which was significantly lower in all drinking categories.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0735-0414",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}