Readmissions for treatment for alcoholism.

First admissions and readmissions for alcoholism have risen steeply in recent decades. This study looked at readmission histories for four cohorts of alcoholics first admitted to inpatient psychiatric treatment in 1967-68, 1973, 1977 or 1979. Over the twelve years the first cohort was observed, alcoholics on average spent 254 days in treatment and had 2.14 alcohol-related readmissions. However the distributions were very skewed: 50% stayed less than 92 days and 45.6% had no readmissions at all. All four cohorts yielded similar results over comparable time periods and all showed markedly skewed distributions reflecting the diversity of readmission histories among alcoholics. Policy decisions about alcoholism inpatient treatment must take account of this diversity.