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) affect QOL (Donovan et al. 2005). Similarly, results from the 2001–02 and 2004–05 NESARC studies showed that any remission (partial or full) from dependence, whether abstinent or not, was related to improvements in QOL as measured by the SF-12 (Dawson et al. 2009). However, the NESARC QOL analyses examined transitions across AUD statuses over a three-year period, and thus inherently excluded individuals with more than three years of recovery. In addition, previous QOL analyses have not accounted for length of time in recovery. Therefore, knowledge about whether and how QOL differs between non-abstinent vs. abstinent recovery remains limited.
