Alcoholics Anonymous and Drug Addiction

[John V]

Okay, I just checked Moos & Moos's study - it's not a controlled trial. Participants were not told whether to attend AA or not, and those that did attend AA were people who decided to seek out treatment for themselves. Nevertheless they did find AA essentially equally effective to professional treatment with effectiveness most associated with the length of time spent in either professional treatment or AA (and 27 weeks was the magic number). They also found that people who attended both professional treatment and AA had significantly better results, which indicates that AA can work in parallel to professional treatment rather than replace it.

IMO you're downplaying the importance of AA. The study said:

Consistent with prior studies (Fiorentine, 1999; Fiorentine & Hillhouse, 2000; Moos et al., 2001; Ritsher, McKellar, et al., 2002; Ritsher, Moos, & Finney, 2002), longer participation in AA made a positive contribution to alcohol-related, self-efficacy, and social functioning outcomes, over and above the contribution of treatment. An initial episode of professional treatment may have a beneficial influence on alcohol-related functioning; however, continued participation in a community-based self-help program, such as AA, appears to be a more important determinant of long-term outcomes.

Also, they were comparing it to therapy available in 1990. CBT was developed later in the 90's. So it doesn't compare it to the better therapies available today, which would be expected to out perform AA over the same period of treatment (e.g. 27 weeks).

Do you have data comparing AA to newer therapies?

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Here's a study on group v. individual therapy in substance abuse (rather than anorexia or gambling). The abstract:

Most substance abuse treatment programs employ various models of group therapy. Empirical evidence, however, of the benefits of group vs. individual treatment is scarce. This study examined the impact of type of treatment, defined as individual or group counseling, on treatment performance, as measured by treatment completion and goal achievement. Data on clients treated in publicly funded substance abuse outpatient treatment programs were drawn from the Massachusetts Substance Abuse Information System. A larger proportion of group to individual therapy was strongly and positively associated with increased likelihood for improved measures of treatment performance. State data systems can provide useful insights into the development and application of performance measurement.