Alcoholism treatment as an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization.

Patients present to psychiatrists with substantial drinking problems either masquerading as mental illness or occurring simultaneously with it. This article reviews the clinical disturbances seen in alcoholism, the process of recovery from alcoholism, and how the various components of alcoholism treatment work. An approach to history-taking and assessment is followed by discussion of the decision whether to treat a person in an alcoholism treatment facility, a psychiatric hospital, or both.