Social support and prevention of relapse following treatment for alcohol abuse

All 30 clients who received standard inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse during 1992-93 in the north Tasmanian health region were randomly assigned to an additional social support intervention, to a self monitoring control intervention, or to a no-additional-treatment control group. Results indicated that artificially created social support was ineffective in influencing consumption beyond what was produced by a combination of standard outpatient follow-up and simple self-monitoring. However, the degree of social support available from the most supportive individual in the drinker's naturally occurring social network was the preeminent predictor of drinking over a 3-month interval. Contrary to the predictions of one cognitive-behavioral approach to relapse prevention, pretreatment measures of client self-efficacy were not associated with drinking at posttreatment.