Brief interventions, in which a doctor or nurse schedules several short appointments to teach a patient about ways to reduce intake, also reduce consumption in people who are not alcohol-dependent, according to the same 1999 review. But nationwide, many doctors and nurses have yet to incorporate this technique into their practices. Vaillant found that men who tried to control their drinking usually relapsed while those who managed to stay sober for five years rarely did. Dr. Richard K. Fuller, director of clinical and prevention research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, agrees. The reason this is so sensitive, why some alcoholics become livid about this, is because they feel their own recovery was delayed for many years because they struggled, kept chasing this will of the wisp.
Most people can have a drink or two and stop.
The alcohol-dependent person can't. Vaillant of Brigham and Women's agrees. That point was illustrated dramatically not long ago with the tragic story of Audrey Kishline, who founded a program called Moderation Management in 1993 on the premise that heavy drinkers who are not yet alcoholics can cut back without abstaining altogether. In March, Kishline went on a drinking binge and killed two people in a car crash. Advocates of moderated drinking like Anthony Martignetti, an addiction specialist who runs the Alcarrest program at Charles River Hospital, insist that, for selected people, reduced drinking programs work.