Resolution of alcohol problems without treatment: Methodological issues and future directions of natural recovery research.

Natural recovery appears to be the major path to recovery from alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Studies of this phenomenon have implications for designing formal treatments, self-change strategies, and preventive interventions, and for contributing to current knowledge of the course of AUDs. The research conducted to date is limited by a number of important methodological issues associated with sampling, diagnostic criteria, and research design. Furthermore, previous research has failed to consider a number of sociocuttural, developmental, and individual difference variables that clinical and epidemiological literature have established as influential to the course of AUDs. This article critically reviews the existing natural recovery literature and elaborates on areas of interest that have been neglected by previous natural recovery researchers.