Five million people attended a self-help meeting for alcohol or
other drug use last year (2% of the total American population over age
12).
About one-third of people who attended a self-help meeting also
received some kind of specialized addiction treatment services in the
past year.
66 percent of attendees were male.
68 percent had a family income under $50,000.
68 percent were white.
45 percent attended because of their alcohol use alone, 22
percent for their illegal drug use alone, and 33 percent for both
alcohol and other drug use.
45 percent of people who attended a self-help meeting had
abstained from substance use in the month before a meeting, 55 percent
had not been abstinent.
Of people who received specialized addiction treatment services,
76 percent of people who received treatment for both alcohol and
illegal drug use attended a self-help meeting, compared to about 65percent of people who received treatment for either alcohol or illegal drug use.
AA was founded in 1935, and therefore predates almost every other
treatment modality in use by so many decades that the research is
still trying to get caught up. (The SAMHSA report cites
the oft-quoted Moos & Moos research as evidence of the emerging
consensus that self-help groups improve long-term substance use
outcomes.) So it's always interesting to see new data and studies about
self-help groups--we still have a lot to learn from them about how
recovery and recovery support work in practice for millions of people.
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