A comparative study of alcoholic patients in Jos, Nigeria, and in Castrop-Rauxel, Germany

A comparative study of the incidence of alcoholism and 175 associated psychopathological disorders, in 202 patients, was conducted in Castrop-Rauxel, F.R.G., and in Jos, Nigeria. The results of the study indicate that in relative terms the involvement of the females (36.6%) in Castrop-Rauxel was well over double the number in Jos (11.9%). The pattern of alcoholism in Jos was associated more with gradual personality deterioration rather than with the more frequent delirium tremens found in Castrop-Rauxel. The rate of hallucinosis and schizophreniform psychosis in Castrop-Rauxel were found to be more than double the incidence in Jos. Cases of depressive psychoses and suicidal ideas in Jos were double the incidence established in Castrop-Rauxel. A comparison of the gamma-GT of the two centres showed that in Jos 88.1% of the patients had pathological serum values compared with 61.4% in Castrop-Rauxel. This points to a higher frequency of liver impairment in the Jos cohort. The enzyme constellation established in this work is in correlation with clinical experience in Jos of a relatively higher level of terminal liver disease (cirrhosis) in patients with a history of alcohol misuse.