Comparison of Hospital and Prison Alcoholics

¹ M.R.C. Grantholder, Department of Psychiatry, Edinburgh University; Department of Psychology, Bexley Hospital, Dartford Heath, Bexley, Kent

The prison and hospital groups did not differ in the degree of psychological disturbance: the high 16PF Anxiety and HDHQ General Hostility scores obtained by both hospital and prison alcoholics indicate a high degree of `emotional upset' and disturbance of personal relationships manifest in a lack of confidence, sense of guilt and worthlessness, dependency, irritability, tenseness, and hostility towards and suspicion of others. The prison alcoholics, however, were clearly differentiated from those in hospital in terms of social class, age, and style of drinking. These findings should be considered along with the study by McCance and McCance of the outcome of treatment for alcoholics in Scotland (1969). They found that those alcoholics who did poorly were those who showed such characteristics as being single, having no home or steady job, or a record of police arrests and drinking cheap wine. These are the very characteristics which describe the prison alcoholic. These factors, moreover, were found by McCance to be more important than the type of treatment that was given. This indicates the need for the development of other methods of treatment and disposal than those presently in use. It can be argued that:

(i) the alcoholic in prison, in terms of degree of psychological disturbance, is in as great a need of treatment as the hospital alcoholics;

(ii) the present procedure for dealing with prison alcoholics is costly and ineffective—one alcoholic who had had 100 imprisonments was described as being `on life sentence without remissions since 1945';

(iii) current hospital treatments for alcoholics showing the same features as prison alcoholics are ineffective.

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