Social stability on admission and success of in-patient treatment for alcoholism.

The pre-treatment social stability score (combined economic-familial-residential scales), indicating whether the patients were comparatively integrated or disintegrated socially, was found to be of greater prognostic value regarding post-treatment drinking than was information about whether they received full, part or "no" treatment. There was a differential treatment effect for the first 3 months of the 12-month period only. Of the overall sample, one-third of the patients could be considered to have improved following treatment, but two-thirds drank as much, if not more, than they did prior to treatment. These two groups were significantly different in terms of social stability and different types of treatment appear necessary to accommodate these differences. Social integration/disintegration is most readily seen in terms of the number of previous treatments (or institutionalisations) the subject has received for alcohol-related problems.