Treatment Retention of Patients Referred by Public Assistance to an Alcoholism Clinic

In order to ascertain the relative impact of coercion by a welfare program on retention in an ambulatory alcoholism program, records of 178 consecutive admissions to an inner-city alcoholism clinic were reviewed. Patients who came to the clinic via coerced referral from a public assistance agency were as likely to remain in treatment for at least nine sessions as self-referred patients.