Alcoholism and typology: findings in an Irish private hospital population.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the validity of alcoholic typology in an Irish private hospital population.


METHODS
We interviewed a randomly selected group of inpatient and outpatient alcoholics (N = 48, 42 male) in a private hospital in Ireland. Subjects had a structured psychiatric interview, including completion of a severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire, a Hamilton depression rating scale and a typology questionnaire.


RESULTS
We found that there were differences between groups of alcoholics when divided according to Cloninger's typology hypothesis and by Von Knorring's age of onset criteria. The Type 2 early age of onset alcoholics (n = 23) had a significantly higher percentage of positive family histories of alcoholism, (p < .01), a higher percentage of sociopathic traits (p < .01) and increased severity of alcoholism (p < .05), relative to the Type 1 late age of onset alcoholics (n = 25). The Type 2 alcoholics also had increased daily consumption of alcohol in the month prior to admission, poor behavioral tolerance to the effects of alcohol and more fights that the Type 1 alcoholics.


CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that there is validity to alcohol typology theory in relation to this Irish private hospital population and that age of onset is a useful defining criterion.
Farren
C K
CK
Department of Psychiatry, St. Patrick's Hospital, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Dinan
T G
TG
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D016304:Hospitals, Private; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011897:Random Allocation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index