Does professional allegiance to12 step treatment discriminate against 92%-95% of substance abusers?
Does professional allegiance to12 step treatment discriminate against 92%-95% of substance abusers?

Summary/Abstract: The majority of addiction professionals offer only one venue of treatment, calling on addicted individuals to follow a treatment plan of immediate abstinence and 12 step participation. Experiential treatment (“it worked for me, so if you work it it will work for you”) not only lacks supporting data, but provides successful outcomes of only 5%-8%. Research based these findings on 12 step treatment whose clients maintained abstinence for one year or longer according to various recent research findings. From a public health perspective, these outcomes are abysmal and need to be addressed. Currently, the office of Health and Human Services reports 90% of addiction treatment centers use the 12 step recovery model. For the majority of substance abusers who don’t “fit” the AA abstinence treatment model, treatment alternatives are few and often inaccessible.

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