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Alcoholism and the Subnormal*
Author(s) -
CRAFT M.,
JENKINS C.,
VILLALANDA MRS.,
CLUTTERBUCKH L.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
british journal of addiction to alcohol and other drugs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0007-0890
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1968.tb05263.x
Subject(s) - mental deficiency , psychiatry , population , welfare , psychology , mental state , medicine , environmental health , political science , law
Summary Psychiatric staff working in Cardiff (population 289,700) investigated the hypothesis that the mentally defective were prone to alcoholism. Using a follow‐up, they checked the further hypothesis that alcoholic defectives had a poor prognosis. “Defectiveness” was defined as applying to those with a standard I.Q. of less than 70; “alcoholism” to those needing admission to state institutions of whatever type on two or more occasions, due primarily to over‐use of alcohol. After checking mental hospitals, mental deficiency colonies, prisons, and welfare institutions in South and Mid Wales, only 9 patients under I.Q. 70 were found to have alcoholism, 4 being in institutions. This is the same proportion as for the general population; the follow‐up shows a better prognosis in terms of community function. It is concluded that past associations of subnormality and alcoholism were probably due to alcoholics of average intelligence being wrongly called defective in order to institutionalize them.