Alcoholics are unlikely to suffer increased anxiety and cravings if they go through more than one "drying out" session.

Research carried out at the University of Sussex shows drinkers do not have any greater withdrawal symptoms after their second, third or fourth detoxification programme than their first.

Previous studies have shown the risk of seizures can increase with subsequent detoxifications due to the effects of the withdrawal.

However in the Sussex report, carried out by experimental psychologists, no effect was found on people's mood and desire to drink.

Report author Theodora Duka said: "Although anxiety is increased in alcohol-dependent patients, there is no relationship between the number of detoxifications and anxiety scores.

"Similarly, our data suggests there is no relationship between the number of detoxifications and craving scores."

The study included 85 subjects and 43 were defined as alcohol dependent.

The other 42 were volunteer control subjects who were social drinkers but not alcoholics.

The alcoholic patients were enrolled from a drug abuse clinic and were undergoing alcohol detoxification during the study.

The study was paid for by a grant from the Medical Research Council.