Alcoholism treatment before, after liver transplant reduces relapse

New research reports that liver transplant recipients who receive substance abuse treatment before and after transplantation have much lower alcohol relapse rates than those untreated or only treated prior to transplantation.  A second study determines that continued alcohol abuse following liver transplantation decreases graft survival, further highlighting the importance of preventing alcohol relapse. Both studies are published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society.  The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) estimates that nearly 23% of women and 42% of men, 18 years of