Drinking's Reinforcer System Among Rehabilitation Center Alcoholics. Age Differences in Drinking's Reinforcer System Among Rehabilitation Center Alcoholics: Implications for Rehabilitation.

The 2 papers included in this report concern personal and social effects as reasons for, and reinforcements of, continued drinking. In the first, a study is reported in which 95 indigent chronic alcoholics were interviewed about both the benefits and drawbacks which they associated with drinking. Results show that (1) a change in feeling state was the most frequently cited benefit; and (2) drawbacks included economic loss, impaired functioning and adverse physical effects. The 2nd study reports data from semistructured interviews of 118 similar subjects. The data were subjected to content analysis with reference to desirable and undesirable consequences attributed to drinking. Subjects 40 years of age and younger more frequently stated that alcohol facilitated social participation, while subjects 51 and older more frequently stated that they derived physical relief or relaxation from drinking. In all age groups some form of changed emotional state was reported. (Author/TL)