The Missouri Alcoholism Severity Scale as a predictor of transfer from outpatient to inpatient treatment.

102 patients (41 women) who were enrolled in Appleton 's Outpatient Treatment service between June 1, 1977 and June 1, 1978 required transfer to an inpatient setting. This comprised 17% of all admissions. The entry records of these individuals were scored for the Missouri Alcohol Severity Scale by entering retrospectively the data collected on admission. When, some time after their entry to the outpatient service, these individuals were transferred to an inpatient setting, they became part of the study sample. A like number of controls was also scored for alcoholism severity. The controls remained in the outpatient program successfully. Comparing the score of transferees and controls, the individuals had a statistically significant higher score on the Missouri Alcohol Severity Scale when they had first entered the outpatient clinic (p + 0.03). With addition of other questions, the Appleton Modification, the probability of this happening by chance was 0.001. The data support the concept that inpatient units may play a meaningful role in the course of alcoholism treatment. High dropout rates from outpatient treatment were among the limiting factors of the outpatient setting.