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Psychopathy and Psychoses Associated with Alcohol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Louis Minski
Louis Minski*
Affiliation:
St. Ebba's Hospital, Epsom
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Extract

For some years following the war the number of patients admitted to mental hospitals whose illnesses were associated with alcohol definitely decreased, but recently the number again appears to be on the increase. During the past eighteen months 50 patients whose illnesses were the result of alcoholic excess were admitted to St. Ebba's Hospital. As this hospital is set aside for recoverable cases, it is possible that the number is in excess of that admitted to other mental hospitals, owing to the fact that many alcoholic psychoses such as Korsakov's disease and delirium tremens have a good prognosis. Nevertheless, in my capacity as consultant to an observation ward I have found that many patients who are suffering from delirium tremens, “pathological drunkenness “, etc., are admitted to such wards, who rapidly clear up and are discharged without being admitted to a mental hospital, and the impression gained is that the number of alcoholics is steadily increasing. It is not proposed to discuss the symptomatology of the various forms of alcoholic psychoses, which are well known, but to discuss various points of interest which arose during the investigation of these patients.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 84 , Issue 353 , November 1938 , pp. 985 - 990
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1938 

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References

1 Neuman, H. W.—“Alcohol Injected Intravenously: Some Psychological and Psychopathological Effects in Man,” Amer. Journ. Psychiat., 1935, xci.Google Scholar
2 Mapother, E.—“Alcoholic Psychoses,” Brit. Journ. Inebriety, January, 1928.Google Scholar
3 Strecker, E. A., and Chambers, F. T. jun.—Alcohol, One Man's Meat. New York: MacMillan Co., 1938.Google Scholar
4 Peabody, R. R.—The Common Sense of Drinking. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1936.Google Scholar
5 Wall, J. H.—“A Study of Alcoholism in Men,” Amer. Journ. Psvchiat., May, 1936, xcii, No. 6 Google Scholar
6 Mapother, E.—“A Plea for Accuracy in the Assessment of Alcoholic Morbidity,” Mott Memorial Volume, 1929.Google Scholar
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