The Atlantic Slams Alcoholics Anonymous--The Carlat Take

The current issue of The Atlantic magazine has a fascinating article entitled "The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous." In a wide-ranging and well-researched article, the author Gabrielle Glaser, begins with the story of a lawyer identified as "J.G."

"J.G." began drinking at age 15 and his habit ramped up through college and law school. Ironically, much of J.G.'s law practice is defending drunk drivers. On a typical court day, according to the article, he would start drinking after his first morning court appearance, and he bought himself a Breathalyzer to make sure he didn't end facing the same judge as his clients. At his worse, he was drinking a full liter of whiskey per day.

Eventually he checked into a rehab based on AA principles. AA famously maintains that complete abstinence is a requirement of effective treatment. It didn't work for J.G., and only led to a series of miserable white-knuckled periods of sobriety interspersed with relapses. Toward the end of the long article we learn that (spoiler alert) J.G. finally gets himself into a clinic that acknowledges the scientific evidence of the efficacy of medications for alcoholism. He is prescribed baclofen and the occasional Valium, and is now successfully sober.

In The Carlat Addiction Treatment Report (CATR) we've written at length about AA and we're generally in agreement with this article. The Cochrane Collaboration, which synthesizes the best evidence available, found only eight RCTs of adequate quality that looked at AA or 12-step Facilitation (TSF), the professional treatment approach that strongly encourages AA participation. The resulting meta-analysis concluded, “No experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA or TSF approaches for reducing alcohol dependence or problems” (Ferri M et al, Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2006;3:CD005032).

The Atlantic article's timing was perfect for CATR as we just published an issue devoted to integrating medications and therapy in alcoholism treatment. You can read the article on pharmacotherapy for free here. 

The bottom line is that AA likely works for many people, particularly those who become active in meetings and who get a sponsor. But we know from placebo controlled trials that medications such as naltrexone and acamprosate are effective--and there's no reason not to combine meds with a 12-step program or psychotherapy. 

On Combining Antipsychotics, Top-Performing Therapists, and Procrastination

I woke up this morning and realized that I've allowed myself to become a victim of BPS--Blog Procrastination Syndrome. It happens to the best of us. We write a post, and days and weeks and months go by. "My next post has to be really, really good," we think.

Forget that. I'm just going to dive back in beginning today. "Done is better than perfect," someone once told me.

At The Carlat Psychiatry Report, we are busy planning future issues, and here are a couple of upcoming topics that I'm fired up about.

Combining Antipsychotics. 

Psychiatrists have gotten plenty of bad PR about our use of antipsychotics. And some of that bad PR is justified. We overuse Seroquel as a sleeping pill. We add too much Abilify to antidepressants because patients come into our office having been hypnotized by ads telling them that this is the drug that will finally help them kick their blues.

But sometimes the criticism is misguided. Lately, guidelines have been published discouraging us from combining antipsychotics. "That's not evidence-based practice," we're told. Fair enough. But when your patient on risperidone is still digging through the snowbanks looking for the transmitter that he's convinced is causing the world to hurtle toward oblivion, you need to something. You can increase the dose, you can switch, you can add, etc....

So I'm working with psychiatric pharmacist Kelly Gable on an article that says, "Look, we understand that combining antipsychotics can increase side effects and is not supported by randomized controlled trials. But sometimes we do it anyway, because our patients our suffering."

We're collecting a list of scenarios that typically lead to antipsychotic polypharmacy, and we're going to evaluate how reasonable these scenarios are. If you have any experience, positive or negative, with antipsychotic polypharmacy, please let me know by email or by commenting to this post.

Top Performing Therapists. 

I interviewed Scott Miller, PhD, the other day for our April issue on psychotherapy. Dr. Miller believes that the real key to improving our clinical success is systematically getting feedback from our patients on how well therapy is going (or medication treatment, or combined treatment, etc....).

He's also found that top performing clinicians spend three to four and a half times as many hours per week than others engaging in "deliberate practice". What does that mean?  You'll have to read about it in the issue. I'm still editing the interview and really enjoying it.

Phew. Feels good to clear out some of the blog-webs that have developed over the months. See you again soon. Really.