Quick and Clean

What little we know about the efficacy of the 12 Steps, the system at the heart of Alcoholics Anonymous, comes from a lengthy study called Project MATCH. As I mention in my Wired piece, Project MATCH confirmed that the Steps perform as well as other therapies when applied in a clinical setting—though, as critics like to point out, no alcoholism treatment produces especially laudable results.

One of the most provocative papers to make use of Project MATCH's data is "Are Alcoholism Treatments...