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Objective: Researchers have devoted much attention to the influence of social support on positive health outcomes, including efficacy of alcoholism treatment. Yet relatively little research has examined the structure (e.g., quantity or frequency of interactions) and quality (e.g., subjective appraisals of value or adequacy) of alcoholics' relationships. In addition, few studies have explored adult alcoholics' friendships, despite research suggesting that friendships influence treatment outcomes. The current study examined friendship characteristics of Project MATCH participants. Method: Participants (1,183 men, 380 women) described the structure and quality of their friendships at baseline and posttreatment. Friendships with drinkers and nondrinkers were examined in relation to baseline and follow-up drinking levels, as well as participant gender, age and parental history of alcohol problems. Results: Significant changes were found in all aspects of friendships with both drinkers and nondrinkers from baseline to the 6-month posttreatment interview. For example, although approximately half of alcoholics' friendships were with drinkers at baseline, that proportion decreased following treatment, whereas the proportion of friendships with nondrinkers increased. There was support for the hypothesis that changes in both friendship quality and structure would predict follow-up drinking levels. Conclusions: This study offers persuasive evidence for the importance of quality and, especially, structure of friendships to adult alcoholics' drinking behavior. Results also suggest differences in friendships depending on gender and across the lifespan. Such individual differences may have implications for prevention and treatment. (J. Stud. Alcohol 62: 637-645, 2001), ********** INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS play an important role in the attainment and maintenance of health. Researchers have devoted most of their attention to the influence of social support on positive health [...]

Objective: This study was designed to compare the Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB) to daily and real-time assessments of drinking. Our purpose was to evaluate overall correspondence and day-to-day agreement between these two methods among both problem and moderate drinkers. Method: In Study 1, problem drinkers (n = 20) reported their alcohol consumption daily during 28 days of brief treatment. In Study 2, moderate drinkers (n = 48), recruited from the community, used a palm-top computer to record their drinking for 30 days. In both studies participants completed the TLFB covering the recording period. Results: Participants in Study 1 reported fewer drinking days, fewer drinks per drinking day and fewer total drinks per day on the TLFB, and those in Study 2 reported fewer drinks per drinking day, fewer ounces per drinking day, fewer total drinks per day and fewer total ounces per day. The magnitude of the difference, however, was modest. There was considerable between-person variation in day-to-day correspondence of TLFB and the daily and real-time reports. Neither person characteristics (gender, education and income) nor the distributional characteristics of drinking (including average consumption, variation) predicted concordance between TLFB and real-time reports. Conclusions: The Timeline Follow-Back method captured overall levels of drinking quite well compared to a 28-day daily diary and a 30-day electronic interview. Vast individual differences in day-to-day correspondence suggest that the TLFB may be less useful for detecting patterns of consumption. (J. Stud. Alcohol 59: 447-454, 1998), The Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB) drinking assessment, was evaluated for daily and real-time assessment. Problem drinkers recorded consumption day-to-day and moderate drinkers used a hand-held computer to record their drinking. The study determined that daily and real-time recording of consumption might be a unique methodological approach for examining patterning., The accuracy with which people recall their alcohol consumption is critical to our understanding of the causes, correlates and consequences of alcohol use, abuse and dependence (Babor et al., 1987, [...]

Patients with psychiatric conditions and alcoholism may have varying degrees of success with in-hospital alcoholism treatment programs. Alcohol consumption and alcohol-related conditions were examined among 225 alcoholics with respect to the presence or absence of three psychiatric disorders after three years of alcoholism treatment. Patients with antisocial personality disorder had less treatment success. Patients who also abused other drugs tended to drink more heavily while those with major depression drank less. Male patients had less treatment success and had more alcohol-related conditions than female patients.

Objective: There is a growing appreciation that emotional, physical and sexual abuse events are frequently part of the life histories of individuals in treatment for alcohol disorders. The present study examines reports of lifetime abuse in a clinical trial for treatment of alcohol dependency. Method: Data were obtained from baseline assessments conducted with participants (N = 1,726; 1,307 men) entering Project MATCH, a multisite clinical trial conducted at nine geographically dispersed research sites. Differences on a broad range of participant characteristics were examined by gender and by reported abuse type. Results: More than half (59%) of the participants reported lifetime abuse. Women were more likely (77%) to report abuse than were men (54%). A lower proportion of men than women (6% vs 31%) reported experiencing both physical and sexual abuse. Gender differences were found on the majority of psychosocial measures. Comparisons of the psychosocial measures by abuse type generally indicated that participants without abuse histories had better functioning than did participants reporting abuse. Conclusions: The high frequency of lifetime abuse in this geographically dispersed sample underscores the necessity for including assessment of emotional, physical and sexual abuse with alcoholism treatment seeking populations. Participants reporting such events may require other treatment in addition to that for alcohol dependency. (J. Stud. Alcohol 62:114-123, 2001), EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SURVEYS and clinical studies of substance abusers conclude that alcohol and drug dependent individuals frequently report experiencing some type of trauma, with estimates of lifetime physical or sexual abuse [...]

Objective: To evaluate the correspondence among measures of self-reported drinking, standard biological indicators and the reports of collateral informants, and to identify patient characteristics associated with observed discrepancies among these three sources of research data. Method: Using data collected from a large-scale clinical trial of treatment matching with alcoholics (N = 1,726), these three alternative outcome measures were compared at the time of admission to treatment and at 12 months after the end of treatment. Results: Patient self-reports and collateral reports agreed most (97.1%) at treatment admission when heavy drinking was unlikely to be denied. In contrast, liver function tests were relatively insensitive, with positive serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP) values obtained from only 39.7% of those who admitted to heavy drinking. At 15-month follow-up the correspondence between client self-report and collateral report decreased to 84.7%, but agreement with blood chemistry values increased to 51.6%. When discrepancies occurred, they still indicated that the client's self-report is more sensitive to the amount of drinking than the biochemical measures. Patients who presented discrepant results tended to have more severe drinking problems, more previous treatments, higher levels of pretreatment drinking and significantly greater levels of cognitive impairment, all of which could potentially interfere with accurate recall. Conclusions: In clinical trials using self-selected research volunteers, biochemical tests and collateral informant reports do not add sufficiently to self-report measurement accuracy to warrant their routine use. Resources devoted to collecting these alternative sources of outcome data might be better invested in interview procedures designed to increase the validity of self-report information. (J. Stud. Alcohol 61: 55-63, 2000), TREATMENT RESEARCHERS have traditionally used self-report assessments to measure alcohol consumption and its consequences. Although self-report measures of drinking are generally considered to be valid, under certain conditions self-report measures [...]

Objective: The literature suggests that women exhibit 'telescoped' development of (i.e., faster progression to) alcoholism, with fewer years drinking than men. The purpose of this study was to use data gathered in the course of a large clinical trial to further examine this issue. Method: Subjects in this retrospective study were from a pool of 1,307 men and 419 women enrolled in Project MATCH, a multisite alcohol treatment matching study. MATCH subjects were recruited from both outpatient and aftercare settings over a 2-year period. Age-of-onset for landmark events in the development of alcoholism were determined from self-report and clinical interviews given at baseline entry into the study. Gender differences in age-of-onset variables were assessed within both outpatient and aftercare settings. Gender differences in progression times between successive landmarks were also examined. Differences were tested with both multivariate and univariate ANOVA techniques. Results: Women generally began getting drunk regularly at a later average age than men (26.6 versus 22.7 years, p [is less than or equal to] .001), began experiencing their first drinking problems at a later average age than men (27.5 versus 25.0 years, p [is less than or equal to] .001) and exhibited loss of control over their drinking at a later average age than men (29.8 versus 27.2 years, p [is less than or equal to] .001). However, these gender differences were most pronounced for older individuals and attenuated for younger subjects. Women also progressed faster than men, on average, between first getting drunk regularly and first encountering drinking problems (0.9 versus 2.3 years, p [is less than or equal to] .001) and between first loss of drinking control and onset of worst drinking problems (5.5 versus 7.8 years, p [is less than or equal to] .001). Women also exhibited shorter average progression times between first getting drunk regularly and first seeking treatment (11.6 versus 15.8 years, p [is less than or equal to] .001), although this effect was negligible for younger subjects. Conclusions: Telescoping is a relatively robust phenomenon in treatment-seeking alcoholics and indicates that women are more likely to progress faster through the landmark events in the development of alcoholism than are men. (J. Stud. Alcohol 60: 252-260, 1999), There is growing interest in differences between male and female alcoholics (e.g., Gomberg, 1993a; Schneider et al., 1995). Areas of research include gender differences in amount and pattern of alcohol [...]