In reply
I thank Dr Daeppen for the opportunity to clarify my editorial. When I wrote that "Only 117 (6%) of 2000 consecutive patients admitted to the treatment program in Switzerland were ultimately included for analysis in the study," I meant just that. As Dr Daeppen and his colleagues pointed out in their article, 2000 patients were consecutively admitted in a little over 1 year to the inpatient alcohol treatment programs of 2 university-affiliated clinics with a combined capacity of 22 beds. For what the authors call "staff organization" reasons, only 2 patients per week per clinic could be included in the study, a total of 243 persons.