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The most controversial issue in alcohol treatment
Focus is on the section of last week’s matrix cell release which explored the fascinating history of the most controversial issue in alcohol treatment – whether dependent drinkers should always be advised to try for abstinence, even whether they should be denied treatment until they accept the need to stop drinking altogether and forever. The controversy was most vitriolic in 1970s USA, where it reached the headlines and TV networks, but dates back at least to a 1962 report on “Normal drinking in recovered alcoholics” from a British psychiatrist, later said to have been misled by his patients.

Click button below to go direct to the featured section of the matrix cell.
THE CONTROLLED DRINKING CONTROVERSY
One of 25 cells in the Alcohol Treatment Matrix, a staff development resource mapping seminal and key research and guidance on alcohol brief interventions and treatment.
“Succinct and erudite and written in relatively plain English for the non-cognoscenti. I am an extremely experienced commissioner and yet still find this resource [matrices] invaluable and insert it in service specifications.”
Andrew MacDonald, former drug and alcohol service commissioner and PhD Researcher at Liverpool John Moores University, England
Also see the hot topic on controlled drinking.
More on the matrices:
Drug Treatment Matrix for harm reduction and treatment in relation to illegal drugs
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Sent by the Drug and Alcohol Findings Effectiveness Bank to alert you to site updates and UK-relevant evaluations of drug/alcohol interventions. Findings is supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction and Alcohol Research UK and advised by the National Addiction Centre.