Alcoholics Anonymous Today

Research on the Efficacy of Alcoholics Anonymous

Today AA is an extensive mutual-help organization that spans the globe. Per the chart below there are over 2 million members in over 150 countries.

	U.S.	Worldwide
Members	1,187,168	2,066,851
Groups	52,735	104,589

A.A. World Services, 2004

395 members who were followed for eight years in a study performed by Humphreys, Moos and Cohen (1997) had positive outcomes after the first 3 years related to:

Remission for alcohol problems
Lowers levels of depression
Higher quality of relationships

In 1998, 3,018 veterans were monitored for one-year by Ouimette, Moos and Finney. Those who were continuing AA attendance from nine to twelve months reported:

More abstinence
Freedom from substance abuse problems
Freedom from significant distress and psychiatric problems
More employment

The following table illustrates a direct correlation between the frequency of meetings attended per week and abstinence rates.

AA Meetings Year 1	Abstinence Year 1	Abstinence Year 8
No AA	21%	35%
2-4 meetings per week	43%	57%
5+ meetings per week	61%	73%

Moos & Moos, Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 2006

The following table illustrates the direct correlation between the duration of time attending meetings and abstinence rates:

No. of YEARS attended	No. of WEEKS attended	% Abstinence at 8 Yrs.
Year 1	None	35%
	1-16 wks.	43%
	17-32 wks.	56%
	33+ wks.	71%
Years 2-8	None	48%
	1-12 mos.	33%
	13-48 mos.	64%
	49+ mos.	89%

Moos & Moos, Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 2006