Alcoholics Anonymous and Drug Addiction

[Aractus]

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.

No it didn't, it didn't say anything of the sort. This is what it said (this is the paper's abstract):

• This study focused on the duration of participation in professional treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for previously untreated individuals with alcohol use disorders. These individuals were surveyed at baseline and 1 year, 3 years, 8 years, and 16 years later. Compared with individuals who remained untreated, individuals who obtained 27 weeks or more of treatment in the first year after seeking help had better 16-year alcohol-related outcomes. Similarly, individuals who participated in AA for 27 weeks or more had better 16-year outcomes. Subsequent AA involvement was also associated with better 16-year outcomes, but this was not true of subsequent treatment. Some of the association between treatment and long-term alcohol-related outcomes appears to be due to participation in AA. - Moos & Moos, 2006.

In the paper they noted that success at the 16-year mark was mostly attributed to people who stayed with the program for 27 weeks or longer in the first year (whether treatment or AA). They found that participants who attended both treatment and AA for 27 weeks or longer were less likely to be problem drinkers 16 years later than those who only did one or the other.

So, staying in either treatment or AA for 27 weeks in the first year was the most important determinant.

Again though, this compared AA to whatever professional treatment was available in that place at that time in c. 1990 (the paper in fact doesn't even bother to mention the year, and as far as I could tell from skimming it doesn't tell you very much about what the professional treatment plan entailed, so I suppose it could have been 1989, 1988 etc we don't know just from the paper). Treatments for addiction and mental illness have improved a lot in the last 24 years.