Which detoxified alcoholic keeps the first clinic appointment?

One-hundred-eighty consecutive discharged alcoholic inpatients making first outpatient appointments during a 15-month period were studied. Eighty-four (47%) patients who kept their scheduled appointments differed from 96 (53%) patients who failed to keep their appointments, only in numbers of previous hospitalizations. Patients who were admitted four or less times for detoxification previously had a significantly higher rate of keeping the scheduled appointments (x = 5.82, d.f. = 2, P less than 0.05). The variables of sex, age, marital status, length of hospitalization, type of discharge, history of drug use besides marijuana, the use of disulfiram, and state of liver function, did not have significant differences between 'showed' and 'failed' patients. The authors suggest the need for a realistic reappraisal of providing physical and psychiatric care at the outpatient setting for those alcoholics with five or more previous inpatient detoxifications.