Merskey H, Brant C C, Malla A, Helmes E, Mohr V
Department of Education and Research, London Psychiatric Hospital, Ontario.
Can J Psychiatry. 1988 Feb;33(1):46-50. doi: 10.1177/070674378803300111.
Alcoholism is noted to be a common problem in Canada and particularly in native populations. We report here a survey of the frequency of evidence of alcoholism over a period of four months in a relatively isolated Northern Ontario population in which more than 80% were either status Indians or of partly Indian origin. Using questionnaire methods, "definite" alcoholism was found to affect 27% of adults seen at a clinic and probable alcoholism affected another 20%. This gives a minimum prevalence of 14.6% of the local adult population over a four month period on the basis merely of examination of less than one third of the adults in the community. Blackouts, tremors, bad temper, chest pain, unsteadiness, loss of appetite, vomiting, sadness and stomach pain occurred significantly more often in the alcoholic patients. Stomach pain, loss of appetite and vomiting were less prominent with alcoholism in this population than in a Southern population. The findings indicate the importance in general practice of looking for alcoholism, the ease with which this may be undertaken with a few very simple short questions and the importance of some characteristic patterns, especially blackouts, shakiness and unsteadiness as one pattern and stomach pain and other gastro-intestinal symptoms as another pattern.
酗酒在加拿大是个常见问题，在原住民中尤为如此。我们在此报告一项对安大略省北部一个相对孤立的人群进行的为期四个月的酗酒证据频率调查，该人群中80%以上是保留地印第安人或有部分印第安血统。采用问卷调查方法，发现“确诊”酗酒影响了诊所就诊成年人中的27%，“疑似”酗酒又影响了另外20%。仅基于对社区不到三分之一成年人的检查，这表明在四个月期间当地成年人口中酗酒的最低患病率为14.6%。酗酒患者出现昏厥、震颤、脾气暴躁、胸痛、站立不稳、食欲不振、呕吐、悲伤和胃痛的情况明显更多。与南方人群相比，该人群中酗酒导致的胃痛、食欲不振和呕吐情况没那么突出。研究结果表明，在全科医疗中筛查酗酒很重要，通过几个非常简单的简短问题就能轻松做到，一些特征模式也很重要，特别是昏厥、颤抖和站立不稳作为一种模式，胃痛和其他胃肠道症状作为另一种模式。
