Alcoholism and Tuberculosis

• Published in: Human organization 1958-01, Vol.16 (4), p.41-43
• Main Authors: Jackson, Joan K., Holmes, Thomas H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alcohol drinking; Alcoholism; Criminal arrests; Drinking Behavior; Emotional problems; Jails; Males; Psychiatric hospitals; Psychometrics; Questionnaires; Relapse; Sanatoriums; Seattle, Washington; Treatment Compliance; Treatment Outcomes; Tuberculosis; Whites
• ISSN: 0018-7259; 1938-3525

The largest % of therapeutic failures are persons who cannot cooperate freely with treatment regime because of soc & psychol'al difficulties. The study was based on 100 tuberculosis (TB) & 50 non-TB alcoholics, white, US born, M's, between the ages of 25 & 55, from the Skid Row in Seattle. The Jellinek Drinking History questionnaire, Cornell Medical Index Health questionnaire Life Experience Schedule was used with all, & psychol'al tests with 20% of the sample. Findings show that most became alcoholics at the (mean - average) age of 35, have been alcoholics for about 8 yrs. Diff's between the 2 groups were found mostly during the last 5 yrs of their life. Almost 50% of the TB alcoholics & less than 20% of the others made serious efforts to quit drinking. The need for soc withdrawal in an effort to change drinking behavior & return to normal is not felt after hospitalization. Mixing freely with Skid Row patients reinforces identification with them, the right to drink becomes the symbol of independence & consequences of relapse after release from the hospital receive secondary considerations. Though the hospital provides a milieu in which personal equilibrium could be regained, at least 33% repeat the total pattern of experience which preceded TB & return for treatment. B. C. Maday.