Couples therapy interventions can be used with alcohol abusers and alcoholics during three broadly defined states of recovery: (1) initial commitment to change; (2) change itself; and (3) long-term maintenance of change. Intervening with the alcoholic's spouse (and/or other nonalcoholic family members) can motivate and reinforce commitment to…

Understanding characteristics specific to alcoholics' marriages could help therapists to more effectively address the needs of alcoholic clients. To identify some of these characteristics, 26 married couples with an alcoholic husband (ALC) were compared with 26 maritally-conficted (MC) and 26 nonconflicted (NC) couples without alcohol problems.…

Several studies have indicated that costs of alcoholism treatment are partially or completely offset by monetary benefits of reduced health and legal system costs after such treatment, although most of these studies have been conducted in the private rather than the public alcoholism treatment system. This study examined the health and legal…

Compared couples with alcoholic husbands and maritally conflicted and nonconflicted couples without alcohol problems. The alcoholic and maritally conflicted couples showed greater relationship distress than nonconflicted couples of measures of marital stability, change desired, and positive communication behaviors. Alcoholic husbands reported less…

Several theorists have advocated marital therapy in treatment programs for alcoholics. Given the promise of marital therapy for alcoholics, it is important to develop successful techniques for recruitment. One approach toward improving recruitment is to identify the characteristics of couples who are likely to accept or reject marital therapy.…

This study examined partner violence before and after behavioral couples therapy (BCT) for 303 married or cohabiting male alcoholic patients and used a demographically matched nonalcoholic comparison sample. In the year before BCT, 60% of alcoholic patients had been violent toward their female partner, 5 times the comparison sample rate of 12%. In…

The stereotype of the "drunken bum" wife abuser has a long history in American culture. U.S. population surveys document a positive correlation between alcohol consumption levels and marital violence. In this study risk factors for marital violence among treatment seeking male alcoholics were examined. Subjects were couples (N=107) who had a newly…

Following a brief review of literature on marital and family treatment for alcohol problems, this paper describes two types of marital therapy frequently used with alcoholics and presents a brief overview of results from a study in progress comparing the two modalities. Behavioral marital therapy uses communication skills training, contracting,…