Movement therapy for alcoholic patients.

Abstract

Most of the alcoholics admitted to the 350-bed Senogawa Mental Hospital in Hiroshima, Japan, have serious physical disorders uch as chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, gastritis, gastric or duodenal ulcer and diabetes. Detailed examination and diagnosis are essential to ensure appropriate treatment not only of the mental illness which is the immediate cause of their admission, but also of these physical disorders and the withdrawal symptoms which may develop several days after admission. The main problem in treating alcoholics, however, is not in diagnosing their illnesses but in motivating them to accept and cooperate with treatment (1). Because we have found that most alcoholic inpatients tend to resist treatment, agitate patients admitted for treatment of schizophrenia and other diseases, and assume a bossy attitude, we established a ward exclusively for alcoholics. This ward, managed under a joint-activity and collective-responsibility system, is supervised primarily by male nurses who maintain discipline and orderly group life. Poor physical condition due to neurological nd other disorders may have a negative effect on alcoholics' elf-concept (2). Poor physical condition could be a cause as well as a result of alcoholics' behavior.