Female alcoholics: IV. MARITAL SITUATION AND HUSBANDS

Abstract

Little research on the husbands of alcoholic women has been reported. A few studies have shown that they often are alcoholics or are suffering from other psychiatric diseases. The present study describes 51 men, married to female alcoholics, as regards alcoholism, other psycho-social disturbances and mortality, and accounts for the marital situation after an observation period of 6-12 years. A comparison is made with a control group of married male alcoholics. About 50% of the husbands were shown to be alcoholics, 14% had been treated for psychiatric diseases and more than 10% were disabled due to somatic diseases. At the end of the observation period, one-third of both patient groups were still married, one half of the male and one-third of the female patients were divorced. Twenty per cent of the marriages among the male patients and 35% of those among the female patients had been terminated by death. Ten female alcoholics and 14 husbands died, which is a significant excess mortality for both sexes. Mortality among the husbands was higher than expected due to cirrhosis of the liver and diseases of the circulatory system.