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ALCOHOLISM: CONTROL OF THE UNCONTROLLED ALCOHOLIC
Author(s) -
Butler Frank S.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1967.tb02442.x
Subject(s) - medicine , citation , library science , general hospital , gerontology , family medicine , computer science
The importance of alcoholism arises not only from its position as a major medical problem of today, but also from its social impact. This disease has influenced the entire social, economic, and psychologic life of many a family. Despite the multiplicity of theories concerning the etiology of alcoholism, no practical solution has been incubated from all the medical, psychologic or sociologic polemics. The consensus regarding etiology refers consistently to the progressive exclusion of all forms of food with the exception of a liquid diet of intoxicating propensities. Since the patient's vicissitudes finally become escalated into the symptoms of a medical disease, the facts of this medical disease must be brought into focus once again for the sake of orientation and perspective, or at least to approach a springboard for newer theories. Denunciation of the ineptitude of present treatment has become accepted as a criticism that we are not solving the problem of alcoholism in our present generation. An outline of this disease must include the following facts: 1. There is a progressive rejection of food except in the form of alcohol. 2. Symptoms steadily increase and lead to deterioration. 3. The degradation is in direct proportion to the incidence of cirrhosis of the liver. 4. There is a consistent relationship between malnutrition and avitaminosis, with irreversible and inevitable end-results.