The past decade has seen the AUD service field increasingly embrace the broader goal of `recovery' as its guiding vision. Though research on recovery remains in its infancy and the term itself poorly defined, a handful of definitions of recovery have put forth the centrality of quality of life (QOL) as a key recovery component (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment 2006; The Betty Ford Institute Consensus Panel 2007). Furthermore, researchers have started to explore the prospective and dynamic association between QOL and substance use among persons in recovery from AUD and from drug dependence (Frischknecht, Sabo, and Mann 2013; Laudet 2011; Laudet, Becker, and White 2009). Donovan and colleagues (2005) reviewed 36 studies involving various aspects of QOL in relation to AUD and concluded that heavy episodic drinkers had worse QOL than other drinkers, that reduced drinking was related to improved QOL among harmful drinkers, and that abstainers had improved QOL in treated samples (Donovan et al. 2005). The authors also stated that future research should examine how various recovery goals (e.g., abstinence, controlled drinking, harm reduction with continued drinking)
