Abstract
The behavioural effects of alcohol and drug abuse may lead to arrest by the police. Individuals who abuse one substance may be at risk of developing multiple drug dependencies. Using the forensic records, data were collected on 50 successive subjects detained in police custodies across West Yorkshire, England who had gave history of alcohol addiction to a single practitioner. The degree of correlation between alcohol dependency and illicit drug usage was assessed by calculating the Spearman’s Rank coefficient. Thirty three subjects in this study did not use any illicit drugs. There was no correlation between alcohol dependency and concomitant drug abuse in this group. Spearman’s coefficient was statistically insignificant (p = 0.230). Kruskal’s Gamma, which is used for comparing ordinal data, also failed to show a significant link between the alcohol and drug group (p = 0.185). As the degree of alcohol dependency increased, co-use of other drugs decreased. Conversely as the use of stronger drugs increased, co-use with alcohol and other drugs increased. Alcohol dependency is a distinct disorder. Once alcoholism had set in, the use of other drugs falls. The forensic behavioural patterns linked alcohol with “violent disorder” and Class A drug abuse with “organised crime”. This study does not support the contention that most alcohol dependent individuals will also abuse illicit drugs.
Highlights
In 2011 there were 8748 alcohol-related deaths in the UK (Office for National Statistics, UK 2012) and in 2010/11, there were 1,168,300 hospital admissions in England, twice as many as the 510,700 in 2002/03
There was no significant statistical correlation between alcohol dependency and concomitant drug abuse for the series of participants used for the study p = 0.230
The Kruskal’s Gamma was calculated which allows us to compare ordinal data and we found no significant link between alcohol group and drug group with p = 0.185 (See Table 3)
Summary
In 2011 there were 8748 alcohol-related deaths in the UK (Office for National Statistics, UK 2012) and in 2010/11, there were 1,168,300 hospital admissions in England, twice as many as the 510,700 in 2002/03. With alcoholism there is an interaction between parental influences, genetic susceptibility and social opportunity. Antisocial personality and family influences may bring out the alcoholic trait in genetically predisposed individuals especially women (Lewis & Bucholz, 1991). Environmental influences, important may be overshadowed by a genetic predisposition to alcoholism (Gorwood, 2000). Recent studies related to methamphetamine abuse have shown that people who engaged in ‘risky behaviours’ were more likely to abuse methamphetamines (Russell et al, 2008). Such behaviours formed a constellation of personality traits which predisposed certain individuals to illicit drug abuse
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