Hazelden President and CEO Ellen Breyer wrote the following letter to the editor of the Science Times section of the New York Times in response to a July 25 article about a new review of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-Step programs.  The article, headlined "Review Sees No Advantage in 12-Step Programs," reported on research led by Marica Ferri of the Italian Agency for Public Health in Rome and published in the Cochrane Library, and said the review "found little to suggest that 12-step programs reduced the severity of addiction any more than any other intervention." Hazelden has published a variety of information on the effectiveness of A.A. and similar topics, including two issues of the Research Update, one on Alcoholics Anonymous and another on Project MATCH: A Study of Alcoholism Treatment Approaches. You can view the Research Updates by clicking the links to the right. 

July 25, 2006

To the Editor (Science Times):

Nicholas Bakalar's article ("Review sees no advantage in 12-Step Programs," July 25), might lead one to believe that 12-Step programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous, do not help people get sober, but this notion couldn't be further from the truth.

The review cited a mere eight studies of A.A. and other 12-Step programs - a miniscule sample of the research available. If the researchers had looked harder, they would have found a wealth of credible studies from peer-reviewed scientific literature showing that A.A. participation does help people who suffer from the disease of addiction. We'd be happy to share with anyone who asks the many reviews of A.A. effectiveness and efficacy that have been recently published.

The tragedy is that there are millions of people who struggle with addiction in this country, many of whom can reclaim their lives through the kinds of programs that are said here to have "no advantage." We owe it to them to present to the public a comprehensive picture of a complex disease.

Ellen L. Breyer
President and CEO
Hazelden Foundation