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Blood Chemistry Changes in Drinking Alcoholics *
Author(s) -
Gellens Harvey K.,
Gottheil Edward,
Arayata L.,
Alterman Arthur I.
Publication year - 1976
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.1360-0443.1976.tb00066.x
Subject(s) - medicine , alcohol intake , adverse effect , alcohol , blood alcohol , psychology , emergency medicine , injury prevention , poison control , chemistry , biochemistry
Summary The harmful effects of excessive alcohol intake, on a physiological as well as psychological basis, have been accepted for some time now. It has been suggested that in those alcoholic treatment programs where the patient is allowed to drink, there may actually be some adverse effects on hepatic functioning. One of the major features of our program relates to the fact that alcohol is made available, in limited quantities, to the patient on a fixed interval basis. In order to check on the possibility of adverse effects in our own program, we decided to use the SMA 12, which had been utilized routinely as a screening device, to compare the status of our patients at the beginning of the program with their subsequent status at the end of the program five weeks later. The subjects in this study, 75 male patients between the ages of 25 and 55 years, were initially screened for any medical illness or history of psychosis, or brain damage that would be aggravated by the use of alcohol. For purposes of analysis, they were divided into three groups based on the average amount of alcohol consumed daily: nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, and heavy drinkers. Tests for 11 blood chemistry variables, the SMA 12 less creatine phosphokinase, were carried out at the beginning of the program and again just before the program ended. The major results were as follows: (1) the majority of the patients showed a general overall reduction on the blood chemistry variables, which would seem to be related to improvement in overall physiological function; (2) the degree of apparent improvement over the course of the program was not related to the amount of alcohol consumed, in that a patient who drank “heavily” while on the program could be expected to show the same degree of apparent improvement on the blood chemistry tests as did another patient who elected to abstain; some possible reasons for this finding were discussed at length in the paper, as was, also, the relevance of these findings to other alcoholic treatment programs in which alcohol consumption is utilized as one of the avenues of treatment.