Alcoholics Anonymous most effective path to alcohol abstinence, study says

Alcoholics Anonymous, a worldwide support fellowship with a goal to achieve sobriety, may be the most effective path to abstinence for people struggling with alcohol use disorder, according to a comprehensive analysis conducted by a Stanford School of Medicine researcher and his collaborators..

After evaluating 35 studies — and the outcomes of 10,080 participants — professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Keith Humphreys and his fellow investigators determined that AA was nearly always found to be more effective than psychotherapy in achieving abstinence. 

AA, especially when combined with Twelve-Step Facilitation in which a counselor encouraged adherence to the steps, was found to be more effective than psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy in achieving abstinence, according to the research. 

Alcoholics Anonymous in combination with the 12 step facilitation may work for achieving and sustaining sobriety by the social support, inspiration and availability it can provide.

Humphreys noted that the findings were consistent whether the study participants were young, elderly, male, female, veterans or civilians; the studies in the review were also conducted in five different countries. "It absolutely does work," he said of AA’s method.