The effects of length of treatment and specific treatment components (therapy sessions, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and films and lectures on alcoholism) of three residential alcoholism programs were examined. Two statistical techniques, partial correlation and treatment-effect correlation, were compared for their estimates of treatment effects after controlling for patient background characteristics and functioning at intake. Longer periods of treatment were associated with better outcome for residents of a halfway house but not for patients at a milieu-oriented program or a Salvation Army center. Some evidence suggested that the three program components tended to have moderately beneficial effects on outcome, although the results varied in some cases, depending on whether partial or treatment-effect correlation was used in the analysis. The substantive and methodological implications of the findings are considered.
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