Citation

Ramos MB, Flores S. Salud Ment. (Mex) 1999; 22(1): 11-16.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Instituto Mexicano de Psiquiatria)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Alcoholism was considered a medical problem at the beginning of the XIX century, when Esquirol described the nervous delirium due to alcohol abuse. In Mexico, it was diagnosed and treated at the San Andres Hospital. Statistics showed that the frequency of violent dead, suicide, crime and mental pathology rised in the same proportion of alcohol consumption. The treatment for alcoholism was divided into, moral, administrative and medical treatments. The moral treatment was oriented to the creation of a temperance society where members pledged themselves to drink only natural hygienic beverages and no alcohol. The government fixed taxes for alcohol, restricted taverns and supervised the production of wine by means of a sanitary law. In 1889, the first judiciary law measures were taken in Paris, and Mexico adopted them immediately. Alcoholics were treated at the San Hipolito Asylum for alcohol intoxication and chronic alcoholism. The medical treatment for alcoholism was individual and oriented to the desintoxication and the relief of symptoms provoked by alcohol ingestion. Alcoholism was divided into three grades, depending on its chronicity and organic repercussions. First grade alcoholism was not considered as a serious illness. The main purpose was to eliminate the alcohol from the body. The treatment was vomit, ammonia and coffee. The treatment for second grade alcoholism was directed to the suppression of the alcoholic intoxication and the cerebral or pulmonary congestion. They produced the gastric depletion with emetic substances, and in serious cases, with a gastric pump. If the patient was in a comatose state, 'mustard plasters' and vesicatories were applied to reanimate him. The use of local bloodletting and encephalic refrigerants were also recommended. Mechanic resources were used to restore breathing. There were various treatments for third grade alcoholism, which was the worst. Its differents clinical forms were delirium tremens, shakeness, alcoholic hysteria, mania, lipemania and alcoholic monomania. The treatment included the examination of the patient and the determination of the time the patient had not eaten. The treatment also included the hygienic and dietetic norms of those times, that were directed to the strength and sanity of the body. Popular medication consisted of chloral, chloroform, opium digital, valerian, trementine essence and tonics. The prophilactic treatment was oriented to three groups, docile alcoholics, those addicted to alcohol and not alcoholic mad subjects. Doctors were supposed to influence the family and recommend entretainment and the suppression of alcohol to the patient. According to the antigen-antibody model an antialcoholic serum was produced. Chronic patients received attention at the hospital. The first hospital was built in Boston in 1858. The ideal asylum for receiving the various alcoholic treatments should be ample, luxurious and amusing.

Language: es

Keywords

alcohol withdrawal; alcoholism; Alcoholism; article; health program; human; Mexico; Treatment; treatment planning; XIX Century