Another research group examined the effect on legal costs, along with health care costs, of behavioral marital therapy for alcoholism treatment patients (O’Farrell et al. 1996a,b). The results are only suggestive, because of the small number of subjects included in the study. The analysis indicated that behavioral marital therapy decreased both health care and legal costs and that the savings exceeded the cost of delivering the therapy. Behavioral marital therapy was not found to be more cost-effective in prolonging abstinence from drinking than was simple individual counseling, but was just as cost-effective as individual counseling in promoting marital adjustment. In addition, when special sessions to prevent relapse were added to behavioral marital therapy, improvements occurred in abstinence from drinking and marital adjustment outcomes. The additional relapse prevention therapy did not, however, lead to greater savings in health care or legal costs (O’Farrell et al. 1996b).
