Alcoholism as a symptom of social disorder: An ecological view

Summary Social order would be the conditions which would permit every human being the opportunity for full individual development while living in a way which enhances the welfare of the human race and of the physical and biological environment. Tension and conflict under such conditions would lack the gross, disabling, deforming and degrading consequences so evident in the present condition of social disorder. In this perspective, alcoholism is seen as but one of the symptoms of social disorder. Tendencies toward social order are discussed and contrasted with the delinquent aspects of western society. A typology of individual strategies for dealing with stress situations is offered, in which alcoholism is related to other evasive and punitive strategies. The contention of some that alcohol may reduce tension by facilitating communication is attacked.

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Zusammenfassung Die soziale Ordnung stellt die Gesamtheit jener Bedingungen dar, die es allen Mitgliedern erlauben, sich individuell zu, entfalten, und zwar in Übereinstimmung mit den Bedürfnissen des Menschen und den Gegebenheiten seiner physikalisch-biologischen Umgebung. Unter solchen Umständen würden Spannungen und Konflikte nicht jene behindernden, deformierenden und depravierenden Konsequenzen haben, wie sie in der gegenwärtigen sozialen Unordnung zu beobachten sind. Bringt man den Alkoholismus unter eine solche Perspektive, so erscheint er als eines der Symptome sozialer Unordnung. Die vorliegende Studie diskutiert Tendenzen in Richtung einer Sozialordnung im Kontrast zu gewissen defizitären Aspekten der westlichen Gesellschaft. Es wird ein typologischer Katalog individueller Strategien entworfen, die dem Fertigwerden mit Stress-Situationen dienen. Der Alkoholismus rangiert hier gemeinsam mit anderen evasiven und punitiven Strategien. Dabei wird die Auffassung kritisiert, der Alkohol reduziere Spannungen, indem er die Kommunikation erleichtere.

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Résumé L'ordre social représente l'ensemble des conditions qui permettent à chacun de ses membres de ses développer individuellement, et cela en accord avec les besoins de l'être humain et les données de son entourage physico-biologique. Dans de telles conditions, les tensions et conflits ne provoqueraient pas les conséquences entravantes, déformantes et dépravantes que l'on observe dans notre actuel désordre social. Si l'on place l'alcoolisme dans une telle perspective, il apparaît comme un syuptome de désordre social. La présente étude discute des tendances dans le sens d'une orientation sociale contrastant avec certains aspect déficitaires de la société occidentale. On développe un catalogue typologique de stratégies individuelles qui doivent servir à éliminer les situations de stress. L'alcoolisme est ici assimilé à d'autres stratégies évasives et punitives. De plus, on critique le point de vue selon lequel l'alcool réduirait les tensions en facilitant la communication.

     

Alcoholism and psychiatric disorder

Over the past 50 years the relationship between alcoholism and psychiatric disorders, such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia, has been the subject of a great deal of research. Psychiatric problems have been seen as both a cause and a result of alcoholism. Whatever the relation between alcoholism and psychiatric disorder is, it may have significance for the development of differentially effective treatment strategies. Several authors have argued that the presence and nature of psychiatric symptoms should form the basis of a classification system for alcoholics. Given the potential rewards of such a system for both understanding the aetiology of alcoholism and developing effective treatment strategies, it is important to have a clear picture of the nature and extent of this relationship. This paper reviews critically the published studies of the association between alcoholism and psychiatric disorder and outlines directions for future research.     

Alcoholism and seasonal affective disorder

Seasonal changes in mood and behavior (seasonality) may be closely related to alcoholism. Some patients with alcoholism have a seasonal pattern to their alcohol misuse. They may be self-medicating an underlying seasonal affective disorder (SAD) with alcohol or manifesting a seasonal pattern to alcohol-induced depression. Both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the etiology and pathogenesis of alcoholism and SAD, operating, at least in part, through the brain serotonergic system. Family and molecular genetic studies suggest that there may be a genetic link between seasonality and alcoholism. Certain environmental and social factors may contribute to the development of seasonality in patients with alcoholism. The fact that SAD and alcoholism may be comorbid shows the importance of a thorough diagnostic interview. Both mental health and drug and alcohol professionals should be provided with education to assist with appropriate identification, management, and referral of patients presenting with comorbid alcoholism and SAD.     

Alcoholism and attention deficit disorder: MMPI correlates

Previous research suggests that the alcoholic population can be meaningfully divided into subtypes, one of which is attention deficit disorder, residual type (ADDRT). The purpose of this study was to identify differences in personality profiles, as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), between ADDRT alcoholics and other alcoholics. Groups of 50 male ADDRT alcoholics and 50 male nonADDRT alcoholics were administered the MMPI. Statistically significant differences were found for the D, PD, Pa, Pt. Sc. MA, Si, F and K scales: the ADDRT alcoholics scored significantly higher than the nonADDRT alcoholics on most of the scales, but significantly lower on the K scale.     

Alcoholism and panic disorder: co-occurrence and co-transmission in families

Summary The co-occurrence of alcoholism and anxiety disorders in epidemiological and clinical samples is well established. Self-medication of anxiety disorder probands with the anxiolytic substance alcohol might be one reason for this association. Common susceptibility factors of both disorders might be alternative explanations. Controlled family studies recruiting probands with panic disorder and alcoholism are powerful tools to answer this question. A family study of this kind, however, is not available. The present study investigated 113 families of probands with either panic disorder or alcoholism or both (but without affective or psychotic disorders) and 80 families of healthy controls in order to estimate the degree of co-occurrence of the two disorders in nontreated samples of relatives and to explore the magnitude of overlap between susceptibility factors of the two disorders. The co-occurrence of the two disorders was relatively rare in all samples of families under study. Overlap of susceptibility factors was demonstrated by an elevated risk of alcoholism in relatives of probands with panic disorder.     

Schizophrenia as a semiotic disorder

Lanin-Kettering and Harrow (1985) argue the traditional position that schizophrenia is a thought disorder. Chaika and Lambe (1985) counter that it is a speech disorder at the syntactic-discursive level, and not a thought disorder. On the basis of state-of-the-art research in linguistics, it is suggested that the symptoms of schizophrenia are evidence of neither a thought disorder nor a syntactic-discursive disorder but a semiotic disorder. Semiotic structures have the form of saying something about something to someone and involve speech act, reference, pragmatics, and interpretation. Therefore, it appears that schizophrenic disorder is located in this structure.     

Language disorder in schizophrenia as a developmental learning disorder

Receptive language disorder in schizophrenia is hypothesized to represent a learning disorder that involves a neurodevelopmental etiology. It is argued that a preexisting developmental language disorder may characterize a subset of schizophrenia patients. A primary deficit in the temporal dynamics of brain function is assumed to cause receptive language disorder in schizophrenia. This hypothesized core deficit includes both disturbance in the processing of rapid, sequential information and disruptions to patterns of brain activation and synchronization. These timing deficits may alter the way associative connections are formed and/or accessed in semantic memory. It is suggested that abnormalities in second-messenger pathways of subcortical-cortical circuitry offer an etiological nexus for language dysfunction in schizophrenia and developmental dyslexia.     

Alcoholism and panic disorder: is the comorbidity more than coincidence?

Studies on alcoholic patients have found a higher than expected prevalence of panic disorder, and suggest a positive correlation between the level of alcohol consumption and severity of anxiety. Conversely, there is an increased prevalence of alcoholism among patients with panic disorder and their blood relatives. A comparison of symptoms, physiological and neurochemical changes known to occur in both alcohol withdrawal and panic disorder reveals a degree of similarity between the 2 conditions. Based on the data, we propose that the chemical and cognitive changes occurring as the result of repeated alcohol withdrawals may kindle and condition coincidence of panic attacks in susceptible individuals. Implications of our postulates for treatment of alcohol withdrawal and panic disorder in alcoholics and for future studies are discussed.     

Adrenoleukomyeloneuropathy presenting as a mental disorder

Troubles of cognitive functions are generally observed in the X-linked adrenoleucodystrophy. This disease can be revealed at late onset (adrenomyeloneuropathy) or contemporary of the demyelinisation in central nervous system (adrenoleucodystrophy). Cerebral variants with only psychic involvement remain uncommon, the lesions are located in the temporo-parieto-occipital areas. The diagnosis occurs by biological investigations and/or the familial history before any defect of neurological signs. Therapeutics hopes in this storage disorder lay by the earlier diagnosis. In this way, we found interest to investigate the adult forms.