[Results of integrated inpatient detoxification and motivation treatment of alcohol dependent patients]

Abstract

During the course of the disease many alcoholic patients are detoxified on an inpatient basis. Detoxification lasts for some days to 2 or 3 weeks. The treatment goal of abstinence usually cannot be achieved by detoxification alone. Therefore a qualified detoxification should consist of a medical treatment, a careful (psychiatric) diagnostic process and a psychotherapeutic treatment aiming at motivation for further treatment. The described program integrates these components. The psychotherapeutic approach is emphatic and directive, trying to convince all patients to apply for further alcoholism treatment. Follow-up data of 120 of the initial 130 patients eight months after detoxification showed, that 68 patients (57%) started further treatment, most of them as inpatients. In the group of prognostic unfavourable patients, who had not received any disease related counseling before detoxification (77% of the sample), 47% started further alcoholism treatment.