Dr. Keith Humphreys

So the other big pool of data we have to say we have when it's on the NAC, cocaine anonymous, narcotics anonymous.

There were a couple of things that were interesting.

One is it's harder to get people into those groups.

So we were looking at studies where there was what's called 12-step facilitation counseling.

So where you're in there, you've got somebody who knows the program, is introducing you to it, encouraging you to go and then talking about, you know, how did the meeting go and did you get a sponsor and all that kind of stuff.

And the uptake was much lower.

So, if you do that in an alcohol program, you get these doubling or tripling of the rate of patients going into AA and the effect was much, much smaller with the illicit drugs to get people to attend CAA.

We don't know why, but it wasn't as easy to get people in.

Definitely there are correlations pretty consistently that people who were going longer were doing better, but the evidence wasn't quite as strong from an internal validity point of view.

In other words, they're not the same kind of trials, randomized trials that we like to have when we draw inferences.

So I characterize the evidence on...

12-step groups for drugs as positive, encouraging, I would certainly try it, you know, so I'm not harmful, but it's not as strong.

I don't feel, I feel kind of saying AI and no positively has a causal effect on alcohol, I have no doubt about it.

And I'm less sure about that, whether that's true for the drug, maybe an injured case, but on average, it was harder to demonstrate that effect.

Yeah, so there's a lot there in those questions.

So in the cult thing, well, I wouldn't call it a cult.

Cults do two things the AA doesn't do.

One is cults take everybody's money.

AA literally won't let you give them money.

I mean, it's amazing.