Alcohol dependence severity and drinks per day in the week prior to baseline significantly predicted low risk drinking patterns, with greater alcohol dependence severity and greater baseline drinking associated with heavier drinking and abstinence patterns. Prior research has also found that individuals who are higher in alcohol dependence severity may be more likely to achieve abstinence goals[44–46] and individuals lower in dependence severity are more likely to achieve moderate and low risk drinking[11, 21]. Greater negative mood symptoms and having more heavy drinkers in the social network were also significant predictors of heavier drinking patterns during treatment and individuals with these characteristics may have greater difficulty maintaining a low risk drinking trajectory during treatment. Prior studies[6, 47, 48] have found that drinking during treatment is strongly associated with post-treatment functioning, even up to 3 years post-treatment[48].
