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Abstinence is the usual recommendation for people with alcohol dependence, but patients often ask whether it is the only reasonable goal. To help answer this question, researchers studied a prospective cohort of 420 adults who sought alcoholism treatment for the first time; 83% completed 16 years of follow-up.
At 1 year, 48% of participants reported alcohol use and at least one problem (e.g., money, job, health, family) related to drinking, 16% reported alcohol use without problems, and 36% reported that they were abstinent. At 16 years, participants who had reported alcohol use with or without problems at 1 year had similar rates of stable remission from alcoholism (43% and 48%, respectively), and those who reported they were abstinent at 1…