A Comparison of the Outcome of Treatment in Female and Male Alcoholics

¹ Registrar, Crichton Royal, Dumfries

The status of 50 female and male alcoholic patients at a mean period of 1 years after discharge from hospital was studied. Various aspects of the patient's social, psychological and psychiatric states were examined.

The following similarities and differences emerged:

1. The prognosis was significantly poorer in the females.

2. Disturbed marital status in the females was related to a poor prognosis.

3. In the male group the successful patients had a significantly higher mean score on the Matrices but not on the Mill Hill Vocabulary test. This trend was present in the female group as well.

4. On the M.P.I. there was a significant difference between the successful and unsuccessful females on the extraversion variable but not on the neuroticism variable. There were no statistical differences between the male groups on either variable.

5. The 16 P.F. data supported to some extent the M.P.I. findings and did not reveal any difference between the profiles of the successful or unsuccessful patients.

6. In both groups, the presence of an underlying neurosis was significantly related to a successful prognosis.

7. The presence of definite intellectual impairment was related to a poor prognosis in both sexes.

8. All the successful females had had intensive treatment, whereas this was not the case with the successful males.

In examining the differences, the hypothesis is put forward that the females find it more difficult to establish a satisfying role for themselves within their familial unit because of either an openly critical husband or a more severely disturbing illness, or a failure to adapt to the loss of a husband.