Outpatient alcoholics view group therapy

Eight chronic alcoholic outpatients who completed six months of a biweekly therapy group returned questionnaires based on Yalom's concepts of group therapy curative factors. The questionnaire data revealed that the most helpful factors were instillation of hope, altruism, group cohesiveness, interpersonal output and universality. These results are discussed with reference to other studies using Yalom's technique.Supported by Biomedical Research Support Grant Number 2-0570260-30102, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, San Francisco, California.