ALCOHOLISM: DISEASE OR PROTEAN DIS-EASE SYNDROME
This paper utilizes the findings of a number of animal studies on the effects of alcoholism as a conceptual foundation for the development of a comprehensive treatment program. Essentially, the reviewed studies used procedures to develop neuroses in animals and then observed the effects of alcohol on neurotic symptoms. Some animals developed an addiction to the stress relieving properties of the alcohol and were then "cured" through a variety of interventions including environmental manipulations, retraining, and rehabilitation.
After review of the animal studies, a justification for the relevance of these studies to human populations was offered. this justification consisted of a delineation of a number of parallels between the effects of alcohol on the neurotic behavior of animals and the effects of alcohol on the neurotic behavior of humans. Generally, the parallels were used to support the thesis that a primary motivation for drinking alcohol was to dull neurotic tensions and fears and to obtain an immediate if only temporary release from pain.
Using the conceptual foundation developed in the first two sections of the paper, the third and final section of the paper lays out a strategy for the comprehensive treatment of alcohol dependence and abuse. In this regard, comprehensive treatment was said to need to address three issues: individual issues, social issues, and public issues.
Regarding individual issues, the point was made that physicians need to take a holistic rather than body-based approach to alcoholism which is to say that they must take the psychological status of the patient into account in their assessment and treatment of the condition. It is also noted that the medical element of treatment should be considered to be primarily a first-stage approach, helping the body to recover and re-adjust to an absence of alcohol; this because it is only when t...