[Group psychotherapy for prevention of relapses in alcoholism compared to standard outpatient follow-up].

Introduction: Relapse Prevention (RP) is the central and most original focus in the treatment of addictions. Several studies support the effectiveness of group therapy in RP.
Aims: To compare group psychotherapy for RP with standard follow-up of alcohol-abuse/ dependence patients.
Method: Fourteen patients were assigned to the relapse prevention group and another ten patients received the standard outpatient monitoring. Numbers of relapses during the group therapy and one year later were recorded.
Results: We found statistically significant differences (CHI(2)=7.95) p=0.019 between the two groups for rates of abstinence and relapse at the twelve-month follow-up.
Conclusions: Group Therapy for Relapse Prevention is effective, easy to apply in the outpatient context and obtains better rates of abstinence than standard outpatient treatment at the one-year follow-up.