When alcoholics drink aftershave: a study of nonbeverage alcohol consumers

A one-year prospective study was conducted to describe nonbeverage alcohol (NBA) consumption (the use of substitutes for traditional forms of ethanol) among alcoholics. It was found that 11% of inpatient alcoholics at a veterans' hospital and 8.6% of alcoholics at a community hospital had consumed NBA. Substances consumed ranged from toiletries to organic solvents, often in quantities exceeding the theoretical lethal dose. 'Ready availability' was cited as the primary reason for consumption. Social, demographic and psychiatric parameters were then compared between 48 VA alcoholics who used NBA and 48 nonusing alcoholics. No social or demographic differences were found, but NBA drinkers drank more alcohol (P less than 0.0001), had higher global alcoholic severity scores (P less than 0.0001), more severe withdrawal symptoms (P less than 0.0001), and a higher frequency of antisocial personality disorder (P = 0.009) and drug abuse (P = 0.005). When NBA drinkers were subdivided by quantity of NBA consumption and recency of latest ingestion, no social or psychological differences were found between groups, except for more frequent and heavier illicit drug use among 'heavy' NBA consumers (P less than 0.0001).