Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:27:30.187Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Alcoholism in the Republic of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Dermot Walsh*
Affiliation:
Formerly Department of Psychiatry, University College, Dublin

Extract

The impression that alcoholism is common among the Irish is a very old one. It has been given some scientific basis by comparative studies of alcoholism in various ethnic groups in the United States. Thus, Hyde and Chisholm (1944) found that the rejection rate for enlistees in the United States army because of chronic alcoholism was higher in the Irish than in any other national group. Confirmatory evidence came from Malzberg (1940) in a study of first hospitalization rates for various diagnostic categories in New York State, and Roberts and Myers (1954) in a prevalence study in New Haven found that the Irish had a far higher proportion under treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction than other national groups.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Attwood, E. A., and Geary, R. C. (1963). Irish County Income in 1960. Dublin: The Economic Research Institute.Google Scholar
Hyde, R. W., and Chisholm, R. M. (1944). “The relation of mental disorders to race and nationality.” New Eng. J. Med., 231 (18), 612618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearney, N., Lawler, M. P., and Walsh, D. (1969). “Non-hospitalized alcoholic drinking in a Dublin Corporation housing estate.” J. Irish med. Assn. To appear.Google Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1940). Social and Biological Aspects of Mental Disease. Utica, New York: State Hospitals Press.Google Scholar
Morrison, S. L. (1964). “Alcoholism in Scotland.” Health Bulletin, 22 (1), 18.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1967). Personal communication.Google Scholar
Pugh, F., and MacMahon, B. (1962). Epidemiological Findings in United States Mental Hospital Data. London: J. and A. Churchill.Google Scholar
Roberts, B. H., and Myers, J. K. (1954). “Religion, national origin, immigration and mental illness.” Amer. J. Psychiat., 110 (10), 759764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stenback, A., and Achte, K. (1964). “An epidemiologic study of psychiatric morbidity in Helsinki.” Report on the Fourteenth Congress of Scandinavian Psychiatrists. Acta psychiat. Scand. Suppl. 180, 287307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, D. (1968). “Alcoholism in Dublin.” J. Irish med. Assn., 61, 371, 153156.Google Scholar
Walsh, D. and Walsh, B. (1967). “Hospitalized psychiatric morbidity in Ireland: a suggested approach.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 675676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, D. and Walsh, B. (1967). “Mental illness in the Republic of Ireland.” To appear.Google Scholar
Whittet, M. (1967). “Highland and island psychiatric reflexions.” Brit. J. med. Psychol., 40, 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.