研究比较 SMART Recovery 与 AA 在酒精使用障碍康复中的获益

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Addictive Disorders

Abstract

Background Self Management and Recovery Training (SMART Recovery or "SMART") is an internationally known "second wave" addiction recovery mutual-help organization that has grown over several decades. Despite this, little is known empirically about who uses SMART and how they fare on important alcohol-specific outcomes over time relative to individuals using more established options such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), or indeed those who utilize both SMART and AA, or neither. Greater knowledge could deepen understanding of the clinical and public utility of SMART in its own right and inform clinical referral options. Methods Naturalistic, longitudinal, cohort study (N=361) of individuals recruited between February 2019-February 2022, initiating a new alcohol use disorder (AUD) recovery attempt who self-selected into one of four groups at study entry: 1. SMART Recovery; 2. AA; 3. SMART+AA; 4. Neither SMART nor AA, with assessments conducted at intake, 3 -months, and 6 -months measuring a variety of alcohol/drug-related and functioning outcomes. Results: Compared to the AA and Both, SMART Recovery pathway participants exhibited a pattern of less severe clinical pathology and legal system involvement histories along with higher psychosocial stability and recovery capital. In terms of meeting attendance frequency, SMART group did not attend as many meetings as the AA or Both groups, but nevertheless were able to achieve similar levels of improvement on alcohol indicators (i.e., reduced drinking days, heavy drinking days; fewer alcohol-related consequences) as well as similarly high rates of early AUD remission as the AA and Both groups. Conclusions SMART Recovery appears may to provide a valuable alternate source of recovery-specific support that may could be a good fit particularly for certain types of AUD individuals. As such it serves as a valuable addition to the menu of available community-based recovery-support service options.

Keywords

Addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous, groups, Longitudinal, Mutual help, Recovery, self help, smart

Received

20 May 2026

Accepted

13 September 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Kelly, Boorman and O'Connor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence:

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