Some Implications of the Rand Alcoholism and Treatment Study for Alcoholism Research

Rand's data and those from many other studies conducted over the past 15 years suggest that not all successfully recovered alcoholics must or do abstain from alcohol. On the contrary, some are able to resume moderate drinking without suffering serious impairment or relapse as a consequence. This finding challenges the basic underpinning of most therapeutic approaches to alcoholism which demand total abstinence as a treatment goal. Moreover, the requirement of abstinence as the sine qua non of recovery from alcoholism is intimately linked to the larger paradigm of alcoholism that has dominated the field since the 1940s.