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William R. Miller, PhD; A. Lane Leckman, MD; Martha Tinkcom, MS
University of New Mexico Albuquerque

JAMA. 1987;257(23):3228-3229.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

We wish to correct a misleading inference drawn from our data by Dr Maltzman¹ in his recent letter. From a prepublication manuscript, Dr Maltzman drew the figure that only 10% of our clinical sample were engaging in controlled and asymptomatic drinking at long-term follow-up. This figure is correct, but is erroneously contrasted with a recovery rate of 60% to 65% that he describes as "the industry norm for abstinence-oriented programs." This quoted figure, based on a comment made in an interview, is a gross and unsubstantiated estimate of outcomes among "those who finish treatment" and is quite at variance with empirical evidence from properly conducted clinical trials. In a review restricted to outcome studies with at least one year of follow-up data, Costello² concluded that the average success rate (abstinent plus improved cases) after alcoholism treatment is 26%. A similar picture emerged from Vaillant's³ . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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