NPR/Interview: Lance Dodes, Author Of ‘The Sober Truth’.
“There is a large body of evidence now looking at AA success rate, and the success rate of AA is between 5 and 10 percent. Most people don’t seem to know that because it’s not widely publicized. There are some studies that have claimed to show scientifically that AA is useful. These studies are riddled with scientific errors and they say no more than what we knew to begin with, which is that AA has probably the worst success rate in all of medicine.” I suspect most people believe it’s a guaranteed success, unless the participant drops out of the program. I’ll have to recalibrate my own perceptions of AA.
Comments:
If I had something like a terrible heart condition, I don’t know if I’d take a pill that had only 5% to 10% likelihood of preventing a heart attack. Price, I think, would be the deciding factor.
The requisite AA therapy sessions would drive me away within days, if I were an alcohol abuser. I’d be better cured by having someone drop me off in the middle of the wilderness, and let me hike out (sans booze, just the necessities).
Maybe that’s marketable, come to think of it.
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On the other hand, due to budget cuts galore, the waitlist to get into any of the medical programs, instead, is something like 18-24 months.
I have a relative currently in the California court system trying to by court-ordered into a program, and finally get into one ... after about 5 years of trying.