Thought disorder in hospitalized alcoholics

In order to assess the occurrence and persistence of thought disorder in patients in an alcoholism treatment program, a sample of 81 males were tested at the beginning of treatment and again after 4 weeks. The Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking (WIST) was used as the indicator of thought disorder, with the following results: (1) the presence of thought disorder, in both the initial testing and the retesting; (2) a mildly significant reduction in impairment scores over the 4-week period; and (3) only a small proportion of the sample (11% of the initial testing and 17% of the second) evidencing no thought disorder. The implication for planning treatment is that complex, cognitive interventions may be ineffective in groups of alcoholic patients, even when the patients have been "detoxed."