Risk For Women Alcoholics

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 2

Risk For Women Alcoholics

CN.Z.P.A. staff Corretponfienw SYDNEY, May 20.

Female alcoholics may nm xgreatee risk ofphy.L eal. illness earned by exetaive. drinking than do male aleeholles, according te a survey published in the latest Um of the Medical Journal of Australia,

-The survey, nude by a group of doctors from the University of Melbourne’s Departmentof medicine, covered 231 alcoholics over a two-year period. Fortyone of, the patients were women.

The women studied drank excessively for a shorter time than the men examined, but physical illness secondary to alcoholism. was more common among them.

“Feyver women than men were seen at the clinic,**

the journal said. “This may reflect a truly lower incidence of alcoholism among women, or it may merely Indicate that women are more reluctant than men to admit excessive drinking or to seek help for

But,, the article said, relatively more women than men were referred from within the hospital to the clinic.

■The survey found that both men and women «>cohollcs were habitual excessive beer drinkers. Spirits and fortified wine were a poor second and relatively few,mixed their drinks. “tie' m« a consume an avenge- of 220 grams of alcohol a' day—the equivalent of 22 seven-ounce glasses of beer, one bottle Of spirits, or two bottles of fortified wine.”