The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) was designed to serve as a reliable and quantifiable measure of alcohol dependence (M. Selzer, 1971). Since its introduction, the psychometric properties of the MAST have been studied extensively, but there are several questions that have not been addressed or only partially answered. The purpose of…

Although research has suggested that field dependency is a relatively stable characteristic of alcoholics, the results have been confounded by the use of different measures and different time intervals. To investigate the degree of organic brain impairment and its association with measured field dependency amongst alcoholics, 41 male alcoholics,…

Reported rates of mental illness and substance abuse in homeless populations vary widely and are usually based on clinical impressions. In this report structured interviews and objective measures of pathology were used to survey demographics, psychopathology, and substance abuse in a homeless population. Subjects (N=107), who were recruited from a…

Research in the field of alcohol abuse evidences a long history of attempts to predict outcome from alcohol treatment programs using situational and intrapsychic factors. To investigate whether alcohol reinforcement expectancies are related to drinking behavior, 42 male veteran graduates of an inpatient alcohol treatment program were interviewed 1…

Understanding characteristics specific to alcoholics' marriages could help therapists to more effectively address the needs of alcoholic clients. To identify some of these characteristics, 26 married couples with an alcoholic husband (ALC) were compared with 26 maritally-conficted (MC) and 26 nonconflicted (NC) couples without alcohol problems.…

To investigate whether men and women think alike about drinking and the effects of alcohol, the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire was administered to 440 college students, 120 medical patients, and 305 alcoholics in residential treatment. Previous and current drinking patterns and background information were also examined. Subjects were grouped by…

Many alcohol treatment programs have stressed a sense of belongingness as a means for successful treatment of alcoholics in a residential setting. An examination of the effectiveness of this strategy in highly structured and less structured programs involved 200 chronic, recidivistic male adult alcoholics in a residential program. Subjects were…

This paper describes Laurelhurst Manor's family treatment program to help families affected by chemical dependency, a 7-month program which treats family members from the perspective of developmental stages and family roles. The center, located in Portland, Oregon, is a 40-bed, free-standing facility having a 20-bed adolescent unit and a 20-bed…

A successful alcoholism counselor needs to have a suitable personality, the proper training, and a realistic idea of what it is like to work in the field. In order to assess the necessary personal qualities and training, and to obtain firsthand information about working as an alcoholism counselor, alcoholism counselors and supervisors (N=50)…

Affective and physiological responses, interpersonal interaction, and alcohol consumption have been significantly correlated with cognitive factors in defining the behavioral effects of alcohol. To investigate alcohol reinforcement expectancies at the abusive end of the drinking continuum, 305 male and female adult alcoholics enrolled in alcohol…

While alcoholism is no longer regarded as a unitary disorder, conventional measures of congition and personality have yet to be shown capable of consistently predicting clinical outcomes. To investigate cognitive dysfunction and locus of control as predictors of post treatment outcome in a large sample of alcoholics, 106 alcoholics (74 men, 32…

Substance use histories were obtained from 103 persons (16 to 63 years of age) with recent spinal cord injuries (SCI). Lifetime exposure to and current use of substances with abuse potential were substantially greater in this sample compared to a like-age national sample. Exposure to and recent use of substances with abuse potential was…

Alcoholism is frequently called a family disease; encouraging and even insisting that family members participate in the treatment of alcoholics has become routine practice in almost every treatment setting. This study examined the relationship between treatment participation by a family member and two measures of recovery for three birth cohorts…

Traditionally, coping and adaptation have been considered synonymous in individual's responses to illness and other stressful situations. The Illness Adaptation Scale (IAS) is a 12-item instrument which was designed to assess adaptational outcomes in illness situations as well as four coping modes (instrumental-self oriented, instrumental-other…

Despite the increased emphasis on family-oriented approaches to prevention of alcoholism, most programs continue to be implemented within the school systems. To assess family and community needs in Lewiston, Idaho, 150 randomly selected adults (50% male) were surveyed by telephone. The survey focused on residents' perceptions of alcoholism and…