Later research examined the costs of specific treatment modalities. In one study, investigators calculated the costs for each of the three treatments compared in a project called Matching Alcohol Treatments To Client Heterogeneity (Project MATCH) (Cisler et al. 1998). Project MATCH was an 8-year, multi-site clinical trial sponsored by NIAAA that investigated cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational enhancement therapy (MET), and 12-step facilitation (Project MATCH Research Group 1997). Each of the therapies produced generally comparable treatment outcomes, raising the question whether any of these equally effective treatments could be offered for a lower cost. Findings showed that average per-patient costs for MET were the lowest, at $537, compared with $904 for CBT and $956 for 12-step facilitation. The number of patient contact hours differed across the therapies, from 4 hours for MET to 12 hours for both 12-step facilitation and CBT. When costs were computed per hour of patient contact rather than per patient, MET was actually more expensive ($134 per contact hour) than either CBT ($75 per contact hour) or 12-step facilitation ($80 per contact hour).
