Alcoholics Anonymous and Other 12-Step Programmes for Alcohol Dependence

In this Cochrane systematic review, researchers evaluated whether peer‐led Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and professionally‐delivered treatments that facilitate AA involvement, like 12‐Step Facilitation (TSF) interventions, achieve important outcomes like: 

• Abstinence
• Reduced drinking intensity
• Reduced alcohol‐related consequences
• Alcohol addiction severity
• Health care cost offsets

Researchers found that:

• Manualized AA/TSF interventions are more effective than other established treatments, like cognitive behavioral therapy, for increasing abstinence
• Non‐manualized AA/TSF may perform as well as other established treatments
• AA/TSF interventions, both manualized and non‐manualized, may be at least as effective as other treatments for other alcohol‐related outcomes
• AA/TSF probably produces substantial health care cost savings among people with alcohol use disorder