Early successful alcohol treatment pays dividends

People with alcohol problems who remain abstinent within a year of first seeking treatment are more likely to be alive fifteen years later than those who don't fare as well early in treatment, a new study shows.

The findings confirm that "if you think you have a drinking problem, then it's important to get help, and it's important to get help early," Dr. Christine Timko of the Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Menlo Park, California, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.

Some studies have found a nearly five-fold greater risk of death for alcoholics compared to people without drinking problems, Timko and her colleagues note in the medical journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. However, it's not clear whether getting help early might reduce this risk.

To investigate, the team followed up on 628 people who had entered treatment 16 years previously.

Sixty-eight percent had died of alcohol-related causes in that time. Overall, the researchers found, study participants were 40% more likely to die over the course of follow-up than would have been expected in the general population.

Older people, those with more symptoms of alcohol dependence, and those who were unmarried had an even greater mortality risk.

Among those who were not drinking one year after they started treatment, the likelihood of dying was much lower, the researchers found. Risk of death also was reduced for those who spent eight weeks or longer in outpatient treatment during that year and also did not have drinking problems at one year. Spending more than four months attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, along with better drinking outcomes at one year, also cut death risk.

However, people who spent three weeks or longer in inpatient treatment were more likely to die. This is probably because they had more serious alcohol problems, or may have not had the social support of people who were able to get care without being hospitalized, Timko noted.

The findings show how important it is for health care providers who work with people with alcohol problems to find them treatment that will help them, even if they don't succeed in their first attempts at quitting, Timko added.

"Our data indicate that treatment will reduce the chances of dying from alcohol-related problems, but it's up to the programs to measure how well the patients are doing in treatment, and if they're not responding, they need to continue to try to help those people," Timko said.

Reuters: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, October 2006.