Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous  The effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous in treating alcoholism has been extensively studied. Many papers have been published studying how much Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) helps alcoholics keep sober. The subject is controversial with some studies showing AA helping alcoholics, while other studies do not show AA efficacy. The U.S. Surgeon General states in a 2016 report on addiction that "Well-supported scientific evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of twelve-step mutual aid groups focused on alcohol and twelve-step facilitation interventions." The program appears to be helpful for a subset of alcoholics; Alcoholics Anonymous appears to be about as effective as other support groups recommending abstinence from alcohol and other drugs of abuse. There are a number of ways one can determine whether AA works and numerous ways of measuring if AA is successful. The 2020 Cochrane review of Alcoholics Anonymous determines success as "abstinence, reduced drinking intensity, reduced alcohol-related consequences, alcohol addiction severity, and healthcare cost offsets." Because of the anonymous and voluntary nature of Alcoholics Anonymous ("AA") meetings, it is difficult to perform random trials with them; the research suggests that AA can help alcoholics make positive changes. The Surgeon General of the United States 2016 Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health states "Well-supported scientific evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of twelve-step mutual aid groups focused on alcohol and twelve-step facilitation interventions." The research is quite complex and is still developing; some studies have suggested an association between AA and increased abstinence or other positive outcomes, but other studies have not. Likewise, some articles in the popular press state that Alcoholics Anonymous helps some alcoholics get sober, but others claim AA is not effective. While older studies did not show a correlation between being assigned to AA and better treatment outcomes, newer studies show that Alcoholics Anonymous significantly increases abstinence after treatment. The 2020 Cochrane review saw, at the 12-month follow up, a 42% abstinent rate for AA and twelve-step facilitation treatments which encourage patients to regularly attend AA meetings, compared to 35% abstinent using non-AA interventions. Longitudinal studies show a high success rate (i.e. rate of people successfully abstinent from alcohol) for the 25% to 30% who are heavily involved with AA. One study saw that AA adherents have a 67% success rate; another shows a 74.8% success rate among regular AA meeting attenders. Longitudinal studies suffer from self-selection bias, but one 2014 meta-study concludes that AA's effectiveness does not entirely come from self-selection.