Food Junkies Podcast: Is AA still relevant? David Kelly of the Cochrane Review of AA believes YES

Is AA still effective in today’s world? What does the research say?
Welcome to the Food Junkies Podcast. My name is Dr Vera Tarman and I am your cohost today, along with Clarissa Kennedy.
Dr. John Kelly is the Elizabeth R. Spallin Professor of Psychiatry
in Addiction Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of the Recovery Research Institute at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH),
the Associate Director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at MGH, and the Program Director of the Addiction Recovery Management Service.
Dr. Kelly is also a former President of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Society of Addiction Psychology,
and a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology.
He has served as a consultant to U.S. federal agencies and non-federal institutions, as well as the United Nations.
Dr. Kelly has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and books in the field of addiction medicine. His work has focused on addiction treatment and the recovery process, mechanisms of behavior change, and reducing stigma and discrimination among individuals suffering from addiction.
In 2020, Dr. Kelly published a Cochrane review evaluating the efficacy of Alcoholics Anonymous and 12-step facilitation interventions. The review found that AA leads to increased rates and lengths of abstinence compared to other common addiction treatments. It incorporated evidence from 27 high-quality studies involving over 10,000 participants.