Recommended psychosocial interventions for alcohol dependence: lessons in exclusion from the empirically supported treatment literature

Abstract

This year (2003) saw the Health Technology Board for Scotland publish its third Health Technology Assessment Report, entitled Prevention of Relapse in Alcohol Dependence (Slattery et al., 2003). It recommended four evidence‐based psychosocial interventions to be available to NHS patients, and recommended that other psychosocial interventions be avoided. This paper, while welcoming the support for NHS substance misuse services for people experiencing alcohol dependence, addresses the potentially reductionist consequences of such recommendations by making reference to the literature on ‘empirically supported psychological treatments’. Evidence‐based interventions are located within the experimentalist school of psychology, and alternative perspectives within epistemology and psychotherapy are considered. The search for beneficial treatments is concluded to be praiseworthy, however cautions about the privileging of experimental perspectives above all others are made.

Citation

Littlejohn, C. (2003), "Recommended psychosocial interventions for alcohol dependence: lessons in exclusion from the empirically supported treatment literature", Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 41-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/17459265200300027