The diabetic alcoholic: characteristics and treatment outcome

We had previously found a correlation between a recovering alcoholic's propensity to choose free sugar in his diet and his ability to remain sober. To determine if chronic hyperglycemia in itself is a predictor of sobriety, we examined the outcome of alcoholism treatment in 138 diabetics we could identify among 9000 alcoholism treatment outpatients. In general, the diabetics did no better or worse in alcoholism treatment than the whole clinic population, but a subset of the diabetics, those whose diabetes resulted from pancreatitis or pancreatectomy, did very badly. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.