This paper aims at demonstrating the close association of Indian alcohol abuse with the Indian-White relationship as it has developed throughout the contact period. The author became aware of this association in the course of her study of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) among the Coast Salish Indians. In contrast to the situation obtaining among the Coast Salish Indians, lack of interest in A.A. is reported for most Indian groups of North America. The author reviews Coast Salish culture traits with regard to their relevance to the socio-cultural problems of the Indian population today, and explores the relationship between patterns of alcohol use and abuse and Westernization. Alcohol abuse among British Columbia Indians has become a major factor in social, physical, and mental pathology according to statistical evidence, and it is in this context that the function of A.A. and its efficacy in combating alcoholism is investigated. Alcoholics Anonymous maintains that all members are equal, regardless of racial, ethnic or religious background. But Indians with alcohol problems find it difficult to speak openly among non-Indians in A.A. Alleged or real discriminations led to the formation of Indian A.A. groups among the Coast Salish some ten years ago, and participation in them has been steadily growing. Patterns of traditional social structure and behaviour are reflected in the way the Coast Salish conduct their A.A. meetings, and this clearly sets their groups apart from other A.A. organizations. Indian A.A. meetings are important social events on the reserve; sometimes they take the form of a family court, the participants having to justify their behaviour towards kinsmen in front of the whole A.A. group. Considerable discussion is devoted to Indian-White relations, a fact which demonstrates the importance of this conflict area to Indians with alcohol problems. There is a strong emphasis on rebirth through A.A. The "power greater than ourselves" in the A.A. programme is to the local Indian member a syncretic amalgamation of the Christian God with the spirit power of the Salish winter ceremonials. Many Indian A.A. members also attend the revived spirit dances, and the same building is used for both purposes on a local reserve. The author discusses the social movement-aspects of Indian A.A. and the possibility of its development into a nativistic movement. Abstinence from alcohol has been extolled by many religious movements among North American Indians such as the Handsome Lake Religion, the Ghost Dance, the Indian Shaker Church, and the Peyote Cult, which are described in the context of Indian efforts to combat alcoholism. The inefficiency of purely Western methods of helping Indians with alcohol problems is the basis of the author's conclusion that any assistance rendered by Western agencies, in order to be effective, must rely on Indian initiatives and actively involve the local Indian population. Only anti-alcoholic programmes integrating Indian A.A. groups with Indian community centres and professional consultation services in an organized effort, will have a chance to meet with success. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

A study was done to investigate the well documented heterogeneous nature of the alcoholic population. Loevinger's Ego Development Sentence Completion Scale and Rotter's Locus of Control Questionnaire were used to investigate specific characteristics of the primary and secondary alcoholic subtypes. No differences between primary and secondary alcoholics were found on either the Ego Development or Locus of Control scales. The reasons for and implications of such findings were discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Dr. B. Saunders Mr. N. de Villiers

The Community-Oriented Programs Environment Scale (COPES), Form I, which asks clients about their expectations of an ideal treatment environment, was administered to 51 dropouts and 151 completers who began a four-week inpatient programme for alcoholics. A discriminant analysis did not reveal significant differences between dropouts and completers on the COPES subscales. It was concluded that this instrument may not be a useful early predictor of dropouts. Estimations of expectation disconfirmation were derived for each client by calculating the difference between the client's subscale scores on Form I of the COPES and the therapist's subscale scores on Form R of the COPES (which asks about perceptions of the real treatment environment). Comparison of dropouts and completers in terms of these difference scores indicated that this information was also not useful for the early prediction of dropouts. The results are related to previous findings in the literature on client expectations and dropping out of treatment. The potential utility of conventional approaches to the prediction of dropouts is questioned. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This study compared the treatment outcomes of three groups of alcoholic clients which varied in the extent to which their spouses were involved in a 26-day residential treatment program. The three groups consisted of 24 clients whose treatment included a one-day conjoint spouse involvement program, 35 clients whose treatment included a five-day conjoint spouse involvement program, and 22 clients whose spouses did not participate in the treatment program. Self-report measures at 9.3 months follow-rup indicated that significantly more of the clients who participated in the five-day spouse involvement program were controlling their drinking than clients in either of the other two groups. It was suggested that longer, more intensive spouse involvement may be the preferred alternative for alcohol programs with a controlled drinking goal. In comparing the present findings with the existing literature, it was also suggested that spouse inolvement may be most beneficial for those programs with modest success rates, but of less benefit to those programs with high success rates. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The neuroanatomical consequences of chronic ethanol ingestion were investigated using neuropsychological tests selectively sensitive to damage in circumscribed brain areas-~~~ The performance of a group of male alcoholics (N=15) with a self-reporte?- drinking history less than ten years, and a group of male alcoholics (N=15) with a self-reported drinking history of ten or more years was compared to a group of male nqnalcoholic controls (N=15). l.A--multiple covariate analysis was done prior to analyzing group differences to determine what influence three covariates (age, education and socioeconomic status) had on the group performances. Results from this analysis indicated that some of the tests were significantly influenced by age or education but no significant Group x Covariate interactions were observed. /JCn agreement with numerous neuropathological findings, the late stage alcoholics were found to be principally deteriorated on the tests of frontal lobe functioning, followed by lesser impairment on the tests of temporal lobe functioning, with no evidence of impairment on the tests of parietal lobe functioning~ No significant group differences were found betv1een the early stage alcoholics and the controls~ Small but negative correlations were found between both the duration of alcoholism and the average amount of alcohol consumed with each of the neuropsychological measures given in this study.

This is a report of an investigation assessing outcome in a consecutive series of alcohol dependent patients admitted to the Avalon Treatment Centre from 21 October 1985 to 14 April 1986. Although extensive work has been done on the epidemiology of alcoholism among "coloured" people * [classified in terms of the population registration Act]. A direct result of the original field survey by Gillis, Keet and Slabbert was the establishment of this centre. A follow up study of people identified as having drinking problems in the original field survey showed that few people stopped drinking on their own account. Little is known about treatment outcome of patients hospitalized at this centre. Treatment at The Avalon Treatment Centre is based on therapeutic community principles, group therapy, family and social case work as well as the use of antabuse. Contact with Alcoholics Anonymous is encouraged during and after hospitalisation. In addition patients are also followed up by a community sister.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Alcoholism carries significant personal and societal burdens, and yet we still lack effective treatments for alcohol use disorders. Several lines of research have demonstrated disruption of major white matter (WM) tracts in the brains of detoxified alcoholics. Additionally, there are several reports of alterations in the dopaminergic system of alcoholics. A better understanding of the relationships of brain structure and function in the alcoholic brain is necessary to move toward more efficacious pharmacological interventions. In this dissertation, there are three main chapters. First, reduced WM integrity was reported in a sample of individuals with active alcohol use disorder (AUD). This is a relatively understudied population, which is believed to represent a less severe phenotype compared to the in-treatment samples that are typically studied. Second, higher WM integrity was reported in a sample of college-age, active AUD. In a subsample of these individuals, graph theory measures of structural brain network connectivity were shown to be altered in cigarette-smoking social-drinking controls and smoking AUD subjects, compared to nonsmoking healthy individuals. Finally, a novel multimodal approach that combines diffusion weighted imaging and [11C]raclopride positron emission tomography identified differential relationships between frontostriatal connectivity and striatal dopamine tone in active AUD versus social-drinking controls. This suggests that aberrations in frontostriatal connectivity may contribute to reported differences in dopaminergic function in AUD. In summary, these results show that similar to detoxified/in-treatment alcoholics, active AUD samples present with WM integrity alterations, and changes in both structural connectivity and frontostriatal structure/function relationships. / 2021-10-02

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Genetic vulnerability to alcoholism is theorized to be caused by multiple interacting genetic loci, each with a small to modest effect combining under certain environmental influences to contribute to vulnerability to ethanol dependence. Animal models such as selectively bred rodent lines can be used to address this hypothesis of genetic vulnerability. High-drinking lines are implicitly assumed by many to be evidence of high ethanol reinforcement without consideration for variables such as differential pre- and post ingestive effects, low response to alcohol or novelty-seeking. Therefore, it is an open question as to whether animal studies support the idea that genetic differences in free-choice drinking are correlated with genetic differences in other assessments of ethanol-reinforced behavior, including those utilizing operant and classical conditioning. Thus, the present study utilizes selectively bred High- and Low- Alcohol Preferring mice tested for operant intravenous alcohol administration to address the hypothesis that High Alcohol Preferring mice would show evidence of greater alcohol reinforcement than their selectively bred opposite, Low Alcohol Preferring mice. Evidence for greater reinforcement was supported by High Alcohol Preferring mice voluntarily pressing a lever to administer an intravenous dose of alcohol in a two lever choice paradigm, administering higher doses of intravenous alcohol, and tracking the location of the active alcohol lever during a lever reversal procedure in comparison to Low Alcohol Preferring mice. This study supports the High- and Low- Alcohol Preferring mice as a useful genetic model of alcohol-related vulnerability even when utilizing a route of administration that bypasses the digestive system.