[Changes in social conditions and drinking patterns in male and female clients attending an outpatient clinic for alcoholics in Copenhagen].

The proportion of new female clients in the ALKO outpatient clinic in Copenhagen increased from 22% in 1975 to 37% in 1985. The first 100 new male and female clients in the ALKO outpatient clinic in 1975 and 1985 were investigated. The new female clients in 1985 were educated better as regards scholastic and occupational training than were the new female clients in 1975. Fewer of the clients of the ALKO outpatient clinic were married than was the case in the normal population in 1975 and also 1985. In 1975, fewer of the new female clients were registered in the occupational market than among the new female clients in 1985. Attention is drawn to a tendency to evening out of the differences between male and female alcohol addicts as regards social conditions and drinking patterns. The therapeutic consequences of these observations are discussed.