Married Women Alcoholics at the Washingtonian Hospital

Abstract

A statistical summary of age and marital status of the 200 women patients admitted over a 5-year period ending March 31, 1956 is presented and the 98 married women are described with reference to religion, fertility, education, occupation, recreation and precipitating causes of alcoholic episodes. In an effort to determine relationship between marriage and alcoholism, evidence of premarital maladjustment was sought and marital problems were analyzed. These marriages appeared to have been built upon earlier emotional instability and, although it was not possible to demonstrate a direct causal relationship between the marriage and alcoholism, the study called attention to several factors within the marriage contributing to the alcoholism.