Objective:

A systematic review was conducted to identify definitions that facilitated the study of relapse as both behavioral pattern and process.

Methods:

The review was conducted following the PRISMA-P guidelines. Articles that met the following inclusion criteria were considered: (a) published in peer-reviewed journals, (b) provided an explicit operational definition of relapse, (c) assessed relapse during or after a specific psychological or self-care group intervention, (d) focused on alcohol consumption, and (e) were published between 2000 and September 2016.

Results:

"Any drinking" was the most frequent outcome used to identify relapse, although other discrete outcomes were also considered. Nevertheless, none of the definitions operationalize the notion of the return to a problematic drinking pattern and/or the process of relapse.

Conclusion:

Problems related to any drinking definition are discussed and we propose the use of a composed index to study relapse.

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