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Evaluating Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Effectiveness: Recent Advances . L. Sobell, M. Sobell and E. Ward (Eds), Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1980, £10.00.

In a field steeped in dogma, it is a pleasure to see Linda and Mark Sobell relentlessly pursue the goal of exemplary outcome research. They and Elliot Ward have edited this dry, unsensational but useful book which is devoted to the problem of how to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment of alcoholism and drug abuse. The book is a natural step for the Sobells in their attempts to raise the predominantly low standards of outcome research in the area (Sobell and Sobell, 1978) and as such is of interest to all of those in the alcoholism and drug-abuse fields and perhaps also to those involved in outcome research in other areas. There are eight chapters which lean heavily towards research in the field of alcoholism. Chapter 1 is an historical review of outcome research in the area which appears largely to be redundant given that Chapters 7 and 8 cover roughly the same areas. Chapter 2 is a Herculean, 60 page endeavour by Maisto and McCollam who review and tabulate 103 studies of alcoholism treatment which have used multiple measures of outcome; it had to be done, I suppose, but on reading the conclusion that " . . . generally, drinking behaviour is positively associated with other aspects of the alcoholic's rehabilitation." (p. 65), one wonders whether a leaner review might have sufficed. Chapter 3 is a brief review of treatment evaluation problems with respect to narcotic addiction while Chapter 4 is presumably one of the "exemplary" studies which the editors wish to present (p. xv), but unfortunately has a fundamental design flaw in that the financial administration of the treatment is totally confounded with the type of treatment. Chapter 5 is a sophisticated study of the treatment of drug abusers which investigates some interesting relationships between drug use and other variables such as work attendance and school participation; in so doing the authors remind researchers to look beyond oversimple conceptions of "good" and "bad" outcome. Chapter 7 is a review by Caddy of experimental design and outcome measurement problems which includes an account of this team's work in carrying out the 3 year follow-up of the subjects treated in the Sobell's original study. Chapter 8 ends with a plea by the Sobells for cross-validation of different outcome measures in all outcome studies.