Trial reportDrug and alcohol dependence2013
Does Alcoholics Anonymous work differently for men and women? A moderated multiple-mediation analysis in a large clinical sample.
Trial report in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Recovery housing for substance use disorder: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Pretreatment social network characteristics relate to increased risk of dropout and unfavorable outcomes among women in a residential treatment setting for substance use.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2020Trial
- Women with alcohol dependence: A randomized trial of couple versus individual plus couple therapy.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2016Trial
- Do young people benefit from AA as much, and in the same ways, as adult aged 30+? A moderated multiple mediation analysis.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2014Trial
- A meta-review of the evidence on addiction recovery mutual help organizations.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2026Review
- Alcoholics anonymous and recovery in Türkiye: A qualitative study in the context of Social Identity Theory.The British journal of social psychology · 2026Article
- Sex/gender differences in orbitofrontal cortex reactivity underlying the associations between stress, social relationships, and problematic alcohol use.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- PROTOCOL: Mutual Help Organizations to Support Recovery Among Individuals Who Use Drugs: A Systematic Review Protocol.Campbell systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Article
- Behavioral activation, affect, and self-efficacy in the context of alcohol treatment for women with elevated depressive symptoms.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- THE ROLE OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGIOUSNESS IN AIDING RECOVERY FROM ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG PROBLEMS: AN INVESTIGATION IN A NATIONAL U.S. SAMPLE.Psychology of religion and spirituality · 2020Article
- Sex and Gender Effects in Recovery From Alcohol Use Disorder.Alcohol research : current reviews · 2020Article
- Characterizing Participation and Perceived Engagement Benefits in an Integrated Digital Behavioral Health Recovery Community for Women: A Cross-Sectional Survey.JMIR mental health · 2019Article
- Correlates of alcoholics anonymous affiliation among justice-involved women.BMC women's health · 2018Article
- Do women with complex alcohol and other drug use histories want women-only residential treatment?Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2018Article
- Beyond Abstinence: Changes in Indices of Quality of Life with Time in Recovery in a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Adults.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2018Article
- Identifying Mechanisms of Behavior Change in Psychosocial Alcohol Treatment Trials: Improving the Quality of Evidence from Mediational Analyses.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2018Article
- Is Alcoholics Anonymous religious, spiritual, neither? Findings from 25 years of mechanisms of behavior change research.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2017Review
- Lifetime Alcoholics Anonymous attendance as a predictor of spiritual gains in the Relapse Replication and Extension Project (RREP).Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2017Article
- Longitudinal Differences in Spirituality and Religiousness between Men and Women in Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders.Psychology of religion and spirituality · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlcoholics Anonymous (AA) began as a male organization, but about one third is now female. Studies have found that women participate at least as much as men and benefit equally from AA, but it is unclear whether women benefit from AA in the same or different ways as men. This study tested whether gender moderated the mechanisms through which AA aids recovery.
methodsA cohort study of alcohol dependent adults (N=1726; 24% female; Project MATCH) was assessed on AA attendance during treatment; with mediators at 9 months; outcomes (Percent Days Abstinent [PDA] and Drinks per Drinking Day [DDD]) at 15 months. Multiple mediator models tested whether purported mechanisms (i.e., self-efficacy, depression, social networks, spirituality/religiosity) explained AA's effects differently for men and women controlling for baseline values, mediators, treatment, and other confounders.
resultsFor PDA, the proportion of AA's effect accounted for by the mediators was similar for men (53%) and women (49%). Both men and women were found to benefit from changes in social factors but these mechanisms were more important among men. For DDD, the mediators accounted for 70% of the effect of AA for men and 41% for women. Again, men benefitted mostly from social changes. Independent of AA's effects, negative affect self-efficacy was shown to have a strong relationship to outcome for women but not men.
conclusionsThe recovery benefits derived from AA differ in nature and magnitude between men and women and may reflect differing needs based on recovery challenges related to gender-based social roles and drinking contexts.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.