LESS DRUNKENNESS

Evening Star, Issue 22465, 9 October 1936, Page 5

LESS DRUNKENNESS

MEDICAL COMMENTS The ‘ British Medical Journal * of July ‘25 publishes the summary of an interesting paper on .alcoholism and drug addiction in relation to mental health, written by Dr Doris M. Odium. So far as charges of drunkenness provided a measure of its incidence, alcoholism had been steadily declining from the years 1914 to 1932 from over 81 per 10.000 of the population to 75, wrote Dr Odium. In 1934 the figure was still only 9.8. National poverty or the reverse had not influenced the figures appreciably. The explanation was to be found in the realms of psychology; it lay partly in the improvement in the standard of living and consequent increase in selfrespect, and partly in the improved status of women. Everything that tended to keep a man in the home militated against drunkenness. The higher the standards that women expected of men the more likely would they be to live up to them. In the upper classes drunkenness was not tolerated as it would have been 50 or GO years ago. From the preventive angle the beginning must be made with the young child. . . . Out-patient clinics where young people could be helped were multiplying, but there was still a great lack of them, and an insufficient appreciation of their value. It was from better psychological understanding of the child and adolescent improvement in the standard of living, and. above all. from that national security which could only come with peace, that the prevention of alcoholism would be brought about.