ients often are introduced to self-help groups, such as AA. Family members often get involved, too, and may be referred to Al-Anon, a self-help group for family members of alcoholics. Following this intensive program, patients are often encouraged to continue with some type of aftercare program for at least one year. This might include AA, individual or group psychotherapy, or a center-sponsored program that continues on a smaller scale the same type of activities offered during the intensive treatment. For example, at an addiction treatment center in Bethesda, Md., aftercare consists of a 15-week program, in which participants meet twice a week for one hour. They hear lectures and participate in group therapy. This is followed by ongoing group therapy of up to one year for patients with a history of relapse. "This is a powerful enough disease that a great number of people are going to drink one more time, at least," said Larry Goodwin, a licensed social worker and director of the Addiction Treatment Center at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, Md. "And sometimes that's a necessary part because they find out, 'I don't like the results. I've tried it again, and the experts are right.'"( Clemments 17-18)Though treatments are helping make controlling alcoholism easier, a cure is more elusive. The disease is so complex, said Richard Fuller, M.D., director of NIAAA's division of clinical and prevention research, that it may be unlikely one single drug to treat alcoholism will be discovered. Instead, he said, research will continue to focus on finding drugs that can treat various aspects of alcoholism. "I really see alcoholism as a chronic relapsing disease, like arthritis," he said. "And just as with arthritis, in which various inflammatory agents can be used to treat an acute episode, there will be more drugs developed to help alcoholics get and stay on the road to recovery." (Schuckit 60)What is sad to say is that alcohol is a disease ...
