AA, NA help teens fight addiction

BOSTON, June 3 (UPI) -- A U.S study that examined how helpful Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous may be for adolescents, found long-term benefits, researchers say.

"It is difficult to evaluate the efficacy of mutual-help organizations like AA through randomized controlled experiments because the AA 'intervention,' being a community organization based on anonymity, cannot be directly under the control of the researcher in the usual way," the study's corresponding author, John F. Kelly of the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Center for Addiction Medicine and Harvard Medical School, said in a statement. "Yet their popularity and cost-effectiveness cannot be denied."

The researchers recruited 160 adolescent inpatients -- 96 males, 64 females -- with an average age of 16 years, enrolled at two treatment centers with a focus on abstinence and based on a 12-step model. They were tracked over eight years.

"We found that most of the youth attended at least some AA/NA meetings post treatment," Kelly said. "Those patients with severe addiction problems and those who believed they could not use alcohol/drugs in moderation attended the most. The NA and AA focus on abstinence/recovery probably resonates better with these more severely dependent individuals who also typically need ongoing support."

The findings are published online ahead of print of the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.