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Evaluation of a Detoxification Service for Habitual Drunken Offenders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

John R. Hamilton
John R. Hamilton*
Affiliation:
Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, Berks; Edinburgh University Department of Psychiatry
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Summary

The progress of 52 chronic alcoholic habitual drunken offenders who were offered a detoxification, assessment and referral service as an alternative to penal management for their public drunkenness was compared over a year with 48 control subjects, and each group's progress in the experimental year was compared with that in the previous year. The ‘detoxification’ patients were found not to have benefited as regards their alcoholism or episodes of drunkenness, though their periods of abstinence were longer. There were significant improvements in their accommodation and self-reported quality of life, and it is likely that their physical and perhaps mental health improved.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 135 , Issue 1 , July 1979 , pp. 28 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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