How do Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs fit in to treatment?
Most drug addiction treatment programs encourage patients to participate in self-help group therapy during and after formal treatment. These groups add an important layer of community-level social support to help people achieve and maintain abstinence and other healthy lifestyle behaviors over the course of a lifetime. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are, by far, the most common recovery group programs. Research shows that abstinence rates are twice as high for alcoholics who attend AA, and that higher levels of AA attendance are related to higher levels of abstinence.
