Beating Alcoholism: One Word - Abstinence

What is the best way for an alcoholic to stay sober, and refrain from returning to their alcoholic drinking patterns? In a recent press release, researchers announced that the best way to assure sobriety was abstinence. Total, complete, 100 percent abstinence from alcohol.

Researchers have determined that the best way to avoid a relapse is to stop drinking - entirely. But this strategy only works for people who are middle-aged and older.

Sustaining alcohol recovery and dependence problems is much more difficult for younger people. This holds true whether they are abstinent, or if they reduce the amount and frequency that they drink.

"The biggest surprise was how little abstinence did to improve the prospects for younger alcoholics remaining in remission. To my knowledge, no one has looked at this age differential before," said Deborah Dawson, Ph.D. Dawson was the lead author of this study, and is a substance abuse researcher with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Researchers are not clear as to why abstinence is not successful for young drinkers. Additionally, researchers believe that the high relapse rate among people between the ages of 18 to 24 is worthy of a separate study. They also believe that new treatment methods will need to be developed to successfully target people in this age range since existing treatment strategies are not working.

The director of training at the Alcohol Research Group in Berkeley, California believes that part of the reason that young drinkers are not able to be successful is because they simply haven't lived long enough, or been able to ride the roller coaster of successes and failures that is often necessary for abstinence to be effective.

Perhaps one the biggest areas for concern is the fact that most people acknowledged driving their car after they had drank too much alcohol.

About the study
This research was based upon the recovery status of over 1,700 adults. All of them were in treatment for alcohol abuse and dependency.

The research study was conducted between 2001 and 2002, and then again between 2004 and 2005.

They determined that alcoholics who had abstained from drinking at the very beginning of this study remained abstinent when they were interviewed again several years later.

Those who thought that they could drink successfully in smaller amounts (27.2 percent), without regaining their alcohol dependency, showed symptoms of alcohol dependency during the second phase of this study.

This study has been published in the journal, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535659/