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Friday, October 12, 2007

Compliance with Aftercare Treatment, Including Disulfiram, and Effect on Outcome in Alcohol-Dependent Patients
Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on September 18, 2007



To delineate the features of treatment compliance with which predicted outcome during aftercare treatment in a series of patients that completed an inpatient program at the Lisbon Regional Alcohology Centre (CRAS).

Survival analysis revealed that, after 6 months of follow-up, 39.2% of the patients had attained total abstinence of alcohol ingestion; 71% of the relapses on alcohol consumption occurred within the first 3 months.

The median number of days taking disulfiram was significantly related to the number of days of abstinence. Demographic variables, pre-treatment variables, attendance at AA meetings, AGs and outpatient appointments were not significant predictors of outcome.

Consistently taking disulfiram is associated with good outcome, but this may reflect committment to abstinence as well as a treatment effect.

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