ABSTRACT
The traditional medical response to the prevention of any health hazard involves three phases. The causal agent is clear enough — alcohol — but the cost of eradication by prohibition, as has been argued in the previous chapter, is unacceptably high in most societies where alcohol has gained an established place. In 1935 the American Medical Association passed a resolution that alcoholics were to be regarded as valid patients. Treatment was on an out-patient basis and groups, which were often of a didactic kind, formed a major part of therapy. Advocates for continuing expansion of specialist treatment and counselling must also answer the question of effectiveness. Various remedies for chronic drunkenness, some moral or penal, others medical or psychological, have been suggested over the centuries. Alcoholics Anonymous continues to grow in the UK at the rate of 15 percent annually. Councils on alcoholism are to be found in many British towns.
