Loneliness and alcoholism: a study of three groups of male alcoholics

Three groups of alcoholics at different stages of recovery were tested for loneliness with the Sisenwein Loneliness Scale. The groups consisted of alcoholics going through detoxification (acute), alcoholics in outpatient treatment who had had at least two drinking episodes in the previous 6 months (chronic), and alcoholics having at least 1 year of sobriety (recovering). It was hypothesized that the acute group would exhibit more loneliness than the chronic group, who would in turn demonstrate more loneliness than the recovering group. Results showed that acute group to demonstrate significantly (p less than .01) more loneliness on the Sisenwein (mean = 134.4) than the recovering group (mean = 54.6). The chronic group (mean = 91.0) was not significantly different than the others at the p less than .01 level, but the mean score did fall in the expected direction.