Comparison between two samples of alcoholic patients.

The personnel of specialized treatment centers, doctors, and even the alcoh olics themselves recognize that patients differ from one treatment center t o another. However, up to day this situation has not been studied. The purpose of this work is to compare demographic characteristics, alcohol intake and prevalence of physical, psychological and social problems betwe en two different alcoholic samples of patients from two different treatment centers. It is a case study of male patients of more than 18 years of age that reque sted help for their alcohol related problems. They were interviewed at two treatment centers: 211 alcoholic patients at the "Attention Clinic for Alco holic Related Problems" (CAPRA, Spanish acronym), of the General Hospital o f Mexico, and 203 alcoholic patients at the "Help Center for Alcoholics and their Families" (CAAF, Spanish acronym). The profile of the patients attending on each treatment center is different : CAPRA treats mainly patients of more than 40 years of age, married or pre viously married, of low education and income level. They often drink alcoho l, though in lower quantities than CAAF patients. They drink the tradiciona l drinks of Mexico, such as pulque, tequila and mezcal, in high quantities. These patients have been suffering mainly from serious health problems dir ectly related to their way of drinking during very long periods. They are v ery physically deteriorated. CAAF patients are younger, most of them are less than 39 years old. Most of them are married but many are still single. These patients have a higher e ducation and income level than those from CAPRA. They drink from 1 to 4 tim es a week large quantities of commercial drinks, such as distilled beverage s and beer. They still do not show the long term physical complications, ho wever, they have more serious psychological and social problems. Finally, it is worth mentioning that it is impossible to generalize the fin dings of this study to patients from other treatment centers. However, thes e findings provide a first approach to this population group that suffers f rom alcoholism and its serious consequences.