Gender differences in the relationship of community services and informal support to seven-year drinking trajectories of alcohol-dependent and problem drinkers.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine how community service contacts and informal support are related to the course of drinking for dependent and problem-drinking persons in a population-based sample of women versus men over 7 years.

Method: Alcohol-dependent (n = 600) and problem-drinking (n = 992) men and women were identified through probability surveys in the general population and treatment programs throughout a California county. Participants were interviewed at baseline and again 1, 3, 5, and 7 years later.

A brief scale for measuring helping activities in recovery: the brief helper therapy scale.

Background: Helping others is evident in the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous, and is emphasized in formal treatment. However, helping among recovering alcoholics has not been studied, in part because of a lack of helping measures.

Methods: This study developed a Brief Helper Therapy Scale to capture helping among individuals with varying lengths of recovery.

Social environmental influences on the development and resolution of alcohol problems.

This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Santa Barbara, California, June 25-30. The overall goal of the symposium was to consider the broad impact of the social environment on the development of and successful or unsuccessful resolution of drinking problems. The presentations addressed multiple social environmental influences including: the influence of children on parents (Dr.

Alcoholics anonymous careers: patterns of AA involvement five years after treatment entry.

Background: Most formal treatment programs recommend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) attendance during treatment and as a form of aftercare, but we know very little about treatment seekers' patterns of AA involvement over time and how these relate to abstinence.

Method: This paper applies latent class growth curve modeling to longitudinal data from 349 dependent drinkers recruited when they were entering treatment and were re-interviewed at one or more follow-up interviews one, three and five years later, and who reported having attended AA at least once.

Results: Four classes of AA "careers" of meeting attendance emerged: The low AA group mainly just attended AA during the 12 months following treatment entry.

Understanding results from randomized trials: use of program- and client-level data to study medical and nonmedical treatment programs.

Objective: To address unanticipated results from randomized trials, researchers often focus on client-level data about services received during treatment. Program-level observations can also be helpful, especially in understanding treatment delivered in groups. Using both approaches, this article strives to better understand inconsistent results from a trial comparing medical and nonmedical group-format day treatment.

Adolescents in private chemical dependency programs: who are most at risk for HIV?

Consecutive intakes (N = 419) between ages 13 and 18 years to chemical dependency (CD) programs in a large private health plan were interviewed. The prevalence of six HIV risk behaviors was measured and categorized into zero, one, and multiple risk groups. The relationships between both demographic characteristics and substance use with HIV risk behaviors were examined.

In 12-step groups, helping helps the helper.

Aims: The helper therapy principle suggests that, within mutual-help groups, those who help others help themselves. The current study examines whether clients in treatment for alcohol and drug problems benefit from helping others, and how helping relates to 12-step involvement.

Design: Longitudinal treatment outcome.

Does marital status predict long-term drinking? Five-year observations of dependent and problem drinkers.

Objective: Married individuals have lower rates of problem drinking, but little is known about this relationship in the context of other factors. This longitudinal analysis examines marital status with other individual predisposing, problem severity and social predisposing characteristics to understand its strength in predicting alcohol consumption over 5 years.

Method: A probability sample of dependent (n = 600) and problem (n = 992) drinkers was recruited through consecutive adult intakes from a Northern California county's alcohol and drug treatment programs and through a general population survey.