12-step self-help programs prove successful regardless of participants' religious background, study suggests

Anyone, regardless of his or her religious beliefs, can benefit from participation in 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA), according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 67, No. 5.

The longitudinal study examined whether patients' religiosity influenced the extent to which they were referred to--and benefited from--participation in a 12-step recovery program for substance abusers. The participants were 3,018 male abusers of alcohol and other substances at 15 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.The study found that addiction professionals were less likely to refer non-religious substance abusers to these programs. However, for those non-religious patients who did participate in the programs, neither belief in God nor religious behavior was significantly related to whether they benefited from the program. Attendance at 12-step self-help meetings similarly affected whether non-religious and religious patients showed absence of substance abuse at follow-up. Some non-religious patients also showed an increase in religiosity as a result of attending the meetings.

According to the study conducted by Andrew Winzelberg, PhD, and Keith Humphreys, PhD, of the Veterans Affairs and Stanford University Medical Centers, Palo Alto, substance-abuse patients can benefit significantly from 12-step self-help groups even if they disagree with the spiritual aspect of the program. However, this is not widely accepted by most mental health professionals, despite that fact that Americans make more visits to 12-step self-help groups for substance abuse and psychiatric problems than to all mental health professionals combined.

Humphreys adds, "Anyone who has a desire to stop using substances and who is willing to try at least a few meetings to see if the program is helpful should be referred to 12-step groups. Other research we have conducted has shown that, in addition to helping people reduce substance abuse, 12-step self-help groups enhance members' friendship networks and ability to cope with stress."

--L. Mattas-Curry



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