Time-limited group psychotherapy for moderately alcohol dependent patients:: A randomized controlled clinical trial

In recent reviews of treatment of alcohol dependence, psychodynamic group psychotherapy has been evaluated as being comparatively less effective than other methods. Some North American studies have, however, demonstrated differential treatment effects for subgroups of alcohol dependent patients. The focus of the present study was on the evaluation, in a different cultural setting, of psychodynamically oriented time-limited group psychotherapy for a homogeneous subgroup of moderately alcohol dependent male and female patients. After randomization, 49 patients completed either cognitive behavioral or psychodynamically oriented time-limited group treatment. At the 15 months follow-up, patients from both treatment orientations had improved. A majority of the patients in the psychodynamic group treatment, however, seemed to have been able to maintain a more positive drinking pattern during the whole follow-up period compared to the patients in the cognitive behavioral treatment who seemed gradually to deteriorate. A substantial amount of the variance in number of nondrinking days at follow-up was in addition to treatment orientation explained by degree of anxiety at admission.