Patients With Alcohol Use Disorders and Their Concerned Others: Concordance of Lived Experience as a Moderator of Treatment Outcomes

Al‐Anon Intensive Referral to facilitate concerned others’ participation in Al‐Anon Family Groups: a randomized controlled trial

“…In conclusion, the COs in this study participated during the year following a family member or friend’s entry into an AUD treatment episode. The findings, together with those from a formative evaluation of AIR [36], suggest avenues for future research including that these COs may need a more intensive intervention to engage in the 12‐Step program of Al‐Anon, that AIR should be delivered by peers who share the lived experience of being harmed by another’s drinking [28] or that Al‐Anon’s availability is too limited to be a feasible option for many COs. They also suggest that COs may be most open to intervention soon after the patient enters treatment, given that both Al‐Anon participation and relationship resources were highest during the 3‐month follow‐up period.…”

“…We included the CO-patient relationship type as marital (32.7%) or not marital (67.3%), because this is standard practice in studies of harms due to others' substance use [26][27][28]. The CO's self-reported relationship to the drinker was current spouse or partner (30.1%), former spouse or partner (2.6%), parent (25.0%), sibling (13.2%), offspring (11.4%), other relative (2.6%) or friend (15.1%).…”