Adults who are in remission one year after seeking professional help for alcoholism are less likely to die over the next 15 years// than those who are in relapse, a new study has found.
The likelihood of dying is also reduced for alcoholics who undergo a longer duration of outpatient treatment or Alcoholics Anonymous participation during the first year, provided they are doing well at the one-year mark.
“The initial year is critical,” said lead author Christine Timko, Ph.D., a research scientist at the Veterans Health Administration in Palo Alto, Calif. “Getting help early and getting enough help early is a key factor in recovery from alcohol problems and in reducing mortality.”
On average, participants were in their mid-thirties when they started the study, which appears in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Alcohol abuse and dependence increase the risk of premature death. Previous studies have shown that adults treated for alcohol use disorders have a death rate that is 1.6 to 4.7 times greater than the mortality rate for the general American population.
In this study, researchers followed 628 adults in the San Francisco Bay area who had not received prior treatment for an alcohol use disorder. All of the participants were seeking treatment voluntarily and about half were women.
Over the 16-year follow-up period, 19.3 percent of participants died. The mortality rate in this population was 1.4 times greater than expected for the general population, but it was lower than the rate reported in other treatment studies.
“Most studies include a combination of long-term chronic users and first-timers,” said Timko. “We think the mortality ratio was lower than expected because these were people who had not had help before and were catching their alcohol problems early.”
Not surprisingly, those who initially had more severe alcohol-related problems
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