Marital therapy of women alcoholics.

Abstract

SvMMxaY. A case studI of an alcoholic woman suggests that famil!I or marital therapI used alone is inadequate to treat women alcoholics and their (amilies. THOUGH research groups and clinicians have noted the re- lationship of alcoholism and pathology, few have systematically studied or treated this problem using a systems approach. Even more surprising is the lack of study of families in which the identified patient is the wife. The typical alcoholic family is described as consisting of an alcoholic husband and a wife who is either punitive, controlling, rescuing, vacillating or long-suffering (1-5). Descriptions of alcoholic systems, with few exceptions (6-8), concentrate on the alcoholic husband and nonalcoholic wife (9-11). 4 Even papers that deal with the xvife as the identified patient devote much attention to the systems and treatment of families in which the identified patient is the husband. This report presents a brief review of the literature on marital treatment in which the identified patient is an alcoholic wife, and is illustrated by a case synopsis which includes a 9-year follow-up