Benchmark Recovery Center Gives Back to the Austin Community
The principle of “give back what was so freely given to you” is an integral part of the final step of the 12 Steps, first published in the book Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism in 1939.
Read more on PR Web (press release)

Challenging Alcoholics Anonymous as the model for substance abuse treatment
Dr. Lance Dodes, MD, former director of Harvard's substance abuse treatment unit at McLean Hospital and co-author of the upcoming book, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind Twelve-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry. Marc Mahoney …
Read more on 89.3 KPCC

Heroin's Small-Town Toll, and a Mother's Grief
But the government would not pay for inpatient treatment, and Ms. Hale, uninsured, could not afford to send her daughter an hour away to Hazelden, one of the best-known rehab programs in the country. Still, after the detox, in early 2013, Ms. Ivy …
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After 75 Years of Alcoholics Anonymous, It's Time to Admit We Have a Problem
… Greatest Tragedy, which includes a chapter aimed at debunking the idea that AA is the only way. The author Anne Fletcher released Inside Rehab: The Surprising Truth About Addiction Treatment and How To Get Help That Works, a deeply reported exposé …
Read more on Pacific Standard

Question by x9hotlilangel1x: how do u tell my mom that is is a drunk and how can i get help for her??
my mom is a drunk and she gets on my nerves u just want to get her help so she can be more of a mother i mean i live in lasing il so if u can help me plz do

Best answer:

Answer by jigsawinc
Look in your phone book or on the web for your local Alcoholics Anonymous group. They have knowledge in this area. Good luck!

What do you think? Answer below!

High-End Red Hook Rehab Center to Offer Free Drug Screening for Locals
Sorensen and Michael Mosberg, the team behind Urban Recovery House, met with a small group of residents Wednesday night to discuss their center's work and future Red Hook location. The boutique 30-bed inpatient facility, in a 20,000-square-foot …
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His Death, Their Lives
As Jim tells it, his relapse lasted four years, and required four months of rehab, including an extended stay at the Betty Ford Center. He remains mystified by the fact that he didn't die; that he was able to make it back to Alcoholics Anonymous when …
Read more on New York Times

Question by Maryy: What percent of rehabilitated people actually are cured?
ok so this is for a project….
does anyone know what percent of rehabilitated people get out and dont do the same mistake agian??? (i.e.- they would use drugs daily, went to rehab, then when they got out they quit completly)
i searched yahoo, google, and ask jeeves. i did all of my project and this is just a small part of it wich isnt really gonna be graded so keep your useless coments to yourself

Best answer:

Answer by raysny
Rehabs often claim amazing results, but the reality is less than spectacular.

According to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_addiction
“The effectiveness of alcoholism treatments varies widely. When considering the effectiveness of treatment options, one must consider the success rate based on those who enter a program, not just those who complete it. Since completion of a program is the qualification for success, success among those who complete a program is generally near 100%. It is also important to consider not just the rate of those reaching treatment goals but the rate of those relapsing. Results should also be compared to the roughly 5% rate at which people will quit on their own. A year after completing a rehab program, about a third of alcoholics are sober, an additional 40 percent are substantially improved but still drink heavily on occasion, and a quarter have completely relapsed.”

That estimate is based on information from Dr. Mark Willenbring of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and in my opinion, optomistic.

” About 80 percent of addiction patients will relapse, studies suggest, and long-term success rates for treatment are estimated at 10-30 percent.
“The therapeutic community claims a 30 percent success rate, but they only count people who complete the program,” noted Joseph A. Califano Jr., of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. “Seventy to eighty percent drop out in three to six months.” ”
http://www.addictioninfo.org/articles/1633/1/Little-Evidence-that-Costly-Treatment-Programs-Work/Page1.html

90-95% of rehabs in the US are 12step-based. The rest are Scientology or religion-based.

The 12step treatment method has been shown to have about a 5% success rate, the same as no treatment at all:

Although the success rate is the same, AA harms more people than no treatment:
1) Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking, and
2) Dr. Ditman found that A.A. increased the rate of rearrests for public drunkenness, and
3) Dr. Walsh found that “free A.A.” made later hospitalization more expensive, and
4) Doctors Orford and Edwards found that having a doctor talk to the patient for just one hour was just as effective as a whole year of A.A.-based treatment.
5) Dr. George E. Vaillant, the A.A. Trustee, found that A.A. treatment was completely ineffective, and raised the death rate in alcoholics. No other way of treating alcoholics produced such a high death rate as did Alcoholics Anonymous.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-letters85.html

1) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Brandsma
2) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Ditman
3) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Walsh
4) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Orford
5) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Vaillant

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!