Objective: A prospective four-year study examined which components of addiction severity predicted time to relapse among 112 adults with chronic alcoholism who participated in a comprehensive outpatient treatment program.
Methods: Recruited from emergency, inpatient, and outpatient facilities, patients were admitted into the program consecutively between March 1998 and June 2002. Alcohol abstinence was carefully monitored for four years from admission by regular contacts and urine and blood analyses. Alcoholism characteristics and personality disorders were assessed with structured interviews and the International Diagnostic Checklists for Personality Disorders.
Results: Among a variety of potential variables, only presence of a personality disorder and chronicity of addiction were independently associated with a decrease of cumulative four-year abstinence probability.
Conclusions: Their high predictive values suggest that chronicity and personality disorder rank among the most important characteristics of addiction severity.