Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-7drxs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T05:13:53.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Disease Concept of Alcoholism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

E. M. Jellinek  and
Brian D. Hore
E. M. Jellinek
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Treatment Unit, Withington Hospital, University Hospital, South Manchester, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 8LR
Brian D. Hore
Affiliation:
Alcoholism Treatment Unit, Withington Hospital, University Hospital, South Manchester, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 8LR
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Concern over those individuals who drink alcohol to excess goes back many centuries, this concern being directed at the effect alcohol has on the individual and on society. Levine (1978) pointed out that the idea of alcoholism as a progressive disease with the key symptom of ‘loss of control’ did not simply start with the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous or the publication of Jellinek's monograph. Such a concept is, in fact, at least 200 years old.

Type
Books Reconsidered
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 157 , Issue 5 , November 1990 , pp. 786 - 789
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Edwards, G. & Gross, M. M. (1976) Alcohol dependence, a provisional description of a clinical syndrome. British Medical Journal, 1, 1058–1061.Google Scholar
Gross, M. M. (1977) Psychobiological contributions to the alcohol dependence syndrome, a selective review of recent research. In Alcohol Related Disabilities (eds G. Edwards, M. M. Gross, M. Keller et al). Offset publications no. 32. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Heather, N. & Robertson, I. (1981) Controlled Drinking. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Keller, M. (1972) On the loss of control phenomenon in alcoholism. British Journal of Addiction, 67, 153–166.Google Scholar
Levine, H. G. (1978) The discovery of addiction, changing conceptions of habitual drunkenness in America. Journal of Studies of Alcohol, 39, 143–174.Google Scholar
Rush, B. (1814) An inquiry into the effect of ardent spirits (8th edn 1914). In A New Deal in Liquor, a Plea for Dilution (ed. Y. A. Henderson (1934); pp. 185–227. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Trachtenberg, M. C. & Blum, K. (1987) Alcohol and opioid peptides, neuropharmacological rationale for physical craving of alcohol. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 13, 365–372.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1952) Expert Committee on Drugs liable to produce addiction (3rd report). WHO technical report series no. 57. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.