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Female alcoholics
Author(s) -
Dahlgren L.,
Myrhed M.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1977.tb06661.x
Subject(s) - unconsciousness , psychiatry , confusion , alcohol abuse , medicine , substance abuse , psychology , pediatrics , psychoanalysis
The aim of this study has been to describe the different ways in which 100 alcoholics of each sex sought treatment, with special reference to the females. In addition, some psychiatric and social characteristics of the two groups of patients are presented. A significantly higher number of the females were admitted as a result of an acute complication: unconsciousness, suicide attempt, confusion, neurological disorders, etc., while the males generally sought treatment under less dramatic circumstances. As the patients selected were early cases, most had not been treated before, but in those with previous in‐patient psychiatric treatment a diagnosis without an alcohol connection was significantly more common among the women. Drug abuse was considerably more frequent among the female as compared with the male alcoholics, and the specific lonely drinking pattern was also more common among the women. A striking difference between the sexes appeared with respect to partner: more than one‐half of the married women had alcoholic husbands. The corresponding figure for the married men amounted to about 10 %.