Study: care change urged for alcoholism

PROVIDENCE, R.I., May 3 (UPI) -- A new study by U.S. researchers shows outpatient or primary-care alcoholism treatment settings are more effective in reducing the disease and costs.

Researchers from several U.S. universities looked at nearly 1,400 patients between 2001 and 2004 and say alcoholics are better treated in more personal settings.

"Really, people can get treatment in their doctor's office," said Dr. Robert M. Swift, a co-author of the study and associate director of Brown University's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.

Richard H. Longabaugh, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School, said the study showed treatment was better for patients in primary care.

Researchers said fewer than a million of the estimated 8 million U.S. alcoholics get treatment and they hope the study spurs primary care doctors to provide it, the Providence Journal reports.

The study, which included research from Yale, Harvard, the University of Miami and Boston University as well as the Roger Williams Medical Center, was published in Wednesday's edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association.