Alcoholism : [an honors thesis (HONRS 499)]

Abstract

Alcoholism has emerged in modern society as a unique and highly specific illness: it is a behavior disorder with severe medical, psychological, and social complications. It is estimated that alcoholism is the fourth most serious public health problem after heart disease, cancer, and mental illness.1 The first part of this paper will discuss some of the definitions of alcoholism and present facts on the use and abuse of alcohol in the United States; it will offer possible explanations as to the causes of alcoholism and society’s attitude towards it; a discussion of the disease and its progression will be presented; the differences in alcohol abuse according to ethnic groups in our country will be cited; and problems alcoholism causes in the family system will be presented. The second section of this paper will focus on treatment programs. The difficulty of treating alcoholism will be discussed as will treatment programs in general and the philosophy and work of Alcoholics Anonymous will be presented. The Alcoholic Rehabilitation Program at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Marion, Indiana will be discussed in detail and some case studies of patients who have utilized this program will be presented for illustration.