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A Distinct Sociomedical Entity

Mary Jane Ashley, MD, DPH, MSc; Jack S. Olin, MD, FACP, FRCP(C); W. Harding le Riche, MD, MPH, FRCP(C), FACP; Alex Kornaczewski; Wolfgang Schmidt, DJur, MSW; James G. Rankin, MB, FRACP, FRCP(C)

Arch Intern Med. 1976;136(3):272-278.

Abstract
The physical-disease characteristics of 125 skid row and 736 non-skid row male alcoholics were compared in detail to determine whether skid row alcoholism is characterized by a distinct medical, as well as a social, profile. Trauma, tuberculosis, venereal disease, and malnutrition were more common in the skid row alcoholics. Epilepsy, peripheral neuritis, acute brain syndromes, chronic brain disease, and lifetime recordings of all nervous system illnesses also occurred more frequently in the skid row group, as did gastritis, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, ulcer surgery, and postgastrectomy syndrome. Fatty liver, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, and cardiovascular illnesses of all kinds, however, were less common. The skid row medical profile is, in part, the product of a unique sociologic environment. Thus, skid row alcoholism may be viewed as a distinct sociomedical entity.

(Arch Intern Med 136:272-278, 1976)

Author Affiliations
From the departments of preventive medicine and biostatistics, and medicine, University of Toronto, and the Clinical Institute and Research Division, Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, Toronto, Canada.

Footnotes
Received for publication June 19, 1975; accepted Oct 22.

Reprint requests to Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Fitzgerald Building, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, M5S 1A1 (Dr Ashley).

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