Relapse prevention (RP) is an important component of alcoholism treatment. The RP model
proposed by Marlatt and Gordon suggests that both immediate determinants (e.g., high-risk
situations, coping skills, outcome expectancies, and the abstinence violation effect) and
covert antecedents (e.g., lifestyle factors and urges and cravings) can contribute to relapse.
The RP model also incorporates numerous specific and global intervention strategies that
allow therapist and client to address each step of the relapse process. Specific interventions
include identifying specific high-risk situations for each client and enhancing the client’s skills
for coping with those situations, increasing the client’s self-efficacy, eliminating myths
regarding alcohol’s effects, managing lapses, and restructuring the client’s perceptions of the
relapse process. Global strategies comprise balancing the client’s lifestyle and helping him or
her develop positive addictions, employing stimulus control techniques and urgemanagement techniques, and developing relapse road maps. Several studies have provided
theoretical and practical support for the RP model.