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A Review of Five Surveys

WENDELL R LIPSCOMB, MD, MPH

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1966;15(5):455-461.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

MANY and varied are the types of problems to be encountered when one embarks on a discussion of either alcoholism prevalence or its measurement. There are problems of definition, recognition, and of purpose of the measurement. Also of importance are the questions for whom is the report to be interpreted, and with what intent—research? clinician ? program administrator ? legislative assembly? a fund granting agency? the public ? These problems are variously proportioned among the many personal and professional backgrounds, attitudes, goals, and interests of the involved workers.

For many years the backbone (and indeed the only scientifically based) instrument used to assess alcoholism prevalence was the Jellinek * Estimation Formula. The Formula has as its basic parameter recorded deaths attributable to cirrhosis of the liver. Some early survey approaches to the measurement of alcoholism prevalence included attempts to treat the validity of the Estimation Formula,³ efforts to quantify the problem as viewed . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
TALMAGE, CALIF

From the State of California Department of Mental Hygiene, Mendocino State Hospital, Talmage, Calif.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Feb 24, 1966.

Reprint requests to Mendocino State Hospital, Talmage, Calif 95481 (Dr. Lipscomb).

An important parallel use of the survey was the shift to well-designed surveys of drinking practices.16-19

Read before the Northern California Psychiatric Society Meeting, San Diego, Calif, March 20, 1966.

E. M. Jellinek (1890-1963), an acknowledged savant of prodigious output who, fortunately for alcoholism study, early turned his scientific energies to all facets and ramifications of the alcoholism problem. Excellent short biographical studies of the man and his work may be found.1,2

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