An order-theoretic analysis of Jellinek's disease model of alcoholism

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the progressive nature of alcoholism by applying an order-theoretic analysis to a model of alcoholism originally introduced by Jellinek. Ordering theory is specifically designed to investigate hierarchies and developmental progressions, and was judged by the authors to be ideally suited to testing Jellinek's symptom hierarchy of alcoholism. Ordering theory was used to determine if there were any prerequisite relations among any pairs of symptoms in Jellinek's model. The authors were able to find evidence of a progressive symptom hierarchy, but this hierarchy was composed only of a subset of symptoms found in the Jellinek model. The authors conclude that the present study supports the concept of alcoholism as a progressive disorder, but that the progression is not the same as that described by Jellinek.