Analysis of Alcoholism Treatment Programs in North America - Focused on Relapse Prevention -

북미지역 알코올중독 치료 프로그램 분석 - 재발방지를 중심으로 -

Relapse is one of the most serious problem in alcoholism treatment area. But there is no proper post-treatment management program for preventing relapse in Korea. The purposes of this study are the analysis of several alcoholism treatment programs and recommendation about consideration for developing our alcoholism treatment program to prevent relapse in our country. Five different alcoholism treatment programs were collected for this study, two programs were collected by participant observation and three were collected by instruction manuals, references, and briefing materials. The followings are the criteria for this analysis of the five treatment programs. 1. the specific characteristics of the treatment program 2. the criterion of the patients, the duration and period (or the treatment, the special activities, and goals of the treatment. 3. the common characteristics of the five treatments. The common characteristics of those treatment programs are; 1 preparation for post-treatment from the beginning of the treatment (hospitalization) 2. assessment of relapse related factors 3. assessment of the relapse-warning signs 4. development and plan of individualized intervention strategy 5. practice of the plan The common characteristics of those treatment programs are 1. groups are classified the recovery training groups and the self-help groups 2 all kind of treatment programs carried out as groups rather than individuals. 3. usefulness which apply to various settings and various types 4. multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach As results, those programs were developed as post-detoxication management program, follow up program, and continued care program and their theoretical framework was from social learning theory. Those programs used the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy for the classes, groups, and social skill training. These finding can be used for developing culturally appropriate alcoholism treatment programs focused on relapse prevention.