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The Influence of the Wives on the Treatment Outcome of Alcoholics:

A Follow-up Study at Two Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

John B. Rae
John B. Rae*
Affiliation:
Bangour Village Hospital, Broxburn, Midlothian, Scotland
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Extract

The literature on the role of the wife of the alcoholic in his illness and its management has been critically reviewed by Bailey (1961). She points out that research findings are contradictory and that a unitary view of the wife's role is unwarranted. Kogan and Jackson (1964) have demonstrated within-group differences among alcoholics' wives with regard to their perception of their husbands' illness, and have suggested that such differences may have important prognostic implications. Rae and Forbes (1966) have offered a psychometric dichotomy based on the M.M.P.I. which appeared to distinguish a group of wives whose attitudes to their husbands' illness were supportive and realistic, in contrast to a group whose attitudes appeared to be the reverse. These latter wives were characterized by the M.M.P.I. as having the Psychopathic Deviate scale as a prominent feature of their personality profile. There have been no follow-up studies to assess the influence of the wife on her husband's response to treatment, and the present research attempts to assess this and to relate clinical variables to the psychometric characteristics of the marital partners.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 120 , Issue 559 , June 1972 , pp. 601 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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