ALCOHOLISM AND TYPOLOGY - FINDINGS IN AN IRISH PRIVATE HOSPITAL POPULATION

Objective: To assess the validity of alcoholic typology in an irish pr ivate hospital population. Merited: We interviewed a randomly selected group of inpatient and outpatient alcoholics (N = 48, 42 male) in a p rivate hospital in Ireland. Subjects had a structured psychiatric inte rview, including completion of a severity of alcohol dependence questi onnaire a Hamilton depression rating scale and a typology questionnair e. Results: We found that there were differences between groups of alc oholics when divided according to Cloninger's typology hypothesis and by Von Knorring's age of onset criteria. The Type 2 early age of onset alcoholics (n = 23) had a significantly higher percentage of positive family histories of alcoholism. (p<.01), a higher percentage of socio pathic traits (p <.01) and increased severity of alcoholism (p <.05), relative to the Type I late age of onset alcoholics (n = 25). The Type 2 alcoholics also had increased daily consumption of alcohol in the m onth prior to admission, poor behavioral tolerance to the effects of a lcohol and more fights that the Type 1 alcoholics. Conclusions: We con cluded that there is validity to alcohol typology theory in relation t o this Irish private hospital population and that age of onset is a us eful defining criterion.