The effect of waiting for inpatient alcoholism treatment after detoxification. An experimental comparison between inpatient treatment and advice only

Seventeen detoxified alcoholics were randomly assigned to a waiting list group or an inpatient treatment group. The waiting list group members were informed that they had to wait some time until there was a vacant place. By their discharge from the Detoxification Unit they were told to complete a self-report form every day with regards to drinking, working, sleeping home and use of disulfiram orally. Two weeks later they had an outpatient appointment in which the self-reports were collected and reviewed. This was repeated once for everybody so that they all had to wait 4 weeks. By discharge from further inpatient treatment, the inpatient treatment group was instructed to record the same four behaviors daily as the waiting list group did, and they, too, got an outpatient appointment with a 2 week interval. No significant differences between the groups were observed in the three main variables of drinking, working and sleeping home, but the waiting list group used significantly more disulfiram than the inpatient treatment group.