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A Boost for 12-Step Support
Youths leaving addiction treatment might be well served to hear advice to keep attending meetings, even if they can't maintain a daily schedule. A new study published online in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found that in the first six months post-treatment, as little as one Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meeting per week was associated with good outcomes for teens who had been enrolled in California treatment programs. In general, youths in the study who had the most severe addiction problems tended to benefit most from ongoing 12-Step support. Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine did find that the effect of early 12-Step participation after treatment weakened over time. The overall findings should serve as a boost to 12-Step oriented professionals, who often field criticism that their programs lack the breadth of research support often attributed to other treatment approaches.
