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Social Class, Length of Treatment Contacts and the Outpatient Treatment of Alcoholism
Author(s) -
Kalb Melvyn
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
british journal of addiction to alcohol and other drugs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0007-0890
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1975.tb00035.x
Subject(s) - social class , outpatient clinic , medicine , class (philosophy) , psychiatry , psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , political science , law
Summary Previous research has indicated that one of the prime factors in determining the kind of outpatient treatment the alcoholic receives is his social class. Concomitantly it has also been shown that how long the alcoholic stays in treatment varies with his social class. The issues become therefore: (1) Does the alcoholic's social class effect the kind of outpatient treatment he receives regardless of how long he remains in treatment? (2) Does length of treatment contact effect the kind of treatment given to the alcoholic regardless of his social class? By controlling for the variables of social class and length of treatment contacts, the results of this study indicated that when the alcoholic patient attended for three or less treatment sessions (low treatment contact), his social class was not significantly related to the discipline of the therapist he saw, whether medication was prescribed, or whether he attended A.A. concomitant with his clinic treatment. When, however, the alcoholic patient attended for ten or more sessions (high treatment contact), social class was significantly related to all outpatient dependent variables studied. In addition, the findings indicated that for the middle class alcoholic, length of treatment contact was unrelated to the kind of outpatient treatment received, while for the low social class alcoholic, the kind of outpatient treatment received covaried with the length of treatment contact. These findings suggest that the factors that keep middle class alcoholics in treatment appear to lie outside of the patient‐clinic interaction, while for the low social class patients such interactions play a significant role in determining whether they continue in or drop out of treatment. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of “matching” the needs of the alcoholic and particularly the low social class alcoholic to a particular therapeutic program at a very early point in treatment. Such attempts, it is believed, would reduce the high clinic attrition rate and foster a more favorable prognosis.