Alcoholism IV. Is there more than one type of alcoholism

TLDR: Suicide attempts were significantly more frequently seen among the affective-disorder-alcoholic women than among the primary alcoholic women and there was significantly more affective disorder in the families of affected women than in those of the primary alcoholics.

Abstract: Two hundred and fifty-nine alcoholics have been studied clinically. In addition, family histories of psychiatric illness were obtained and 507 first degree relatives were personally. interviewed. Clinically, there are three major groups of alcoholics, (1) primary alcoholics, (2) depression alcoholics and (3) sociopathy-alcoholics. Males predominate in the first and third groups; females in the second group. In first degree family members, alcoholism is more frequently seen for the primary alcoholism group, depression for the depression alcoholism group and sociopathy for the sociopathy-alcoholism group. Nevertheless, for various classes of relatives this kind of segregation does not stay consistent. In all three groups similar percentages of first degree relatives have alcoholism or depression. However, most ill male relatives have alcoholism, and most ill females have depression. The data may indicate three types of alcoholism, or alternatively the possibility that males and females differ in the way they express the illness. Because of the inconsistency in the various classes of relatives, the latter interpretation is probably correct, i.e., that in families of alcoholic probands, ill female relatives express their illness mostly by depression and sometimes by alcoholism, and ill male relatives express their illness mostly by alcoholism and sometimes by depression.