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T Stockwell

Publications and source records attributed to T Stockwell.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

The relationship between license type and alcohol-related problems attributed to licensed premises in Perth, Western Australia.

Drink-driving offenses, alcohol-related traffic accidents and number of assault charges were used as indicators of the degree of alcohol-related problems associated with individual licensed premises in the Perth Traffic Police region of Western Australia. These indicators were used to rank five main categories of licensed premises according to the levels of harm experienced by their customers while controlling for the amounts of alcohol sold in each category. Nightclubs, taverns and hotels emerged as "high-risk" in comparison with clubs and restaurants. The role of such factors as different customer characteristics, opening hours, types of entertainment, restrictions on clientele and provision of meals are discussed as possible explanations underlying this finding.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1991

Drinking locations of drink-drivers: a comparative analysis of accident and nonaccident cases.

This study utilizes data collected by the Perth (Australia) Traffic Police on the last drinking location of persons arrested for drink-driving either as a consequence of their being involved in a road traffic accident or as a result of failing a roadside breath test. A comparison of these data has found that significantly more persons involved in traffic accidents had been drinking at unlicensed locations, that is at private residences or in public places such as parks, than at licensed premises. It was also found that accident cases were more likely to involve males under 25 years; for those involved to have, on average, significantly higher blood alcohol levels than was the case for nonaccident drink-driving cases; and for most accidents to occur late at night and early morning. The significance of these findings were confirmed by logistic regression. A surprise incidental finding was that considerably more women had been arrested for drink-driving than had been previously reported in other studies, both in Australia and overseas.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1991

The measurement of harmful outcomes following drinking on licensed premises.

The relationships between five potential indicators of alcohol-related harm following drinking on licensed premises in Perth were explored. These were annual purchases made by individual licensees of 'high' (>=3.8%) and 'low' (<3.8%) alcohol content drinks, the number of times a particular licensed establishment is cited by drivers as the last place of drinking prior to failing a roadside breath-test (including after accidents) and the annual number of assaults occurring either on or in the vicinity of particular licensed premises. The study area selected was a central part of the Perth metropolitan area with 367 licensed premises serving a residential population of 400 000. Highly significant correlations were found between each of the five variables. The correlations involving purchases of low alcohol drinks, however, were small. When purchases of alcohol were controlled, significant, though lower, correlations, were still evident between the other three variables. This suggests that there are risk factors other than extent of alcohol sales which further research will need to identify, and that these indicators of harm can be of value in monitoring the impact of future intervention strategies.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1991

Home detoxification from alcohol: its safety and efficacy in comparison with inpatient care.

The safety and short-term effectiveness of home detoxification (HD) was investigated by contrasting rates of treatment completion and of complications of 41 service users with those of a retrospectively matched inpatient comparison group. The latter comprised patients of a detoxification unit matched for age, sex and degree of alcohol dependence with HD subjects. HD subjects had severe problems with alcohol--they averaged 28.7 on the SADQ, 4.6 serious alcohol-related problems in the previous 2 months, a GGT of 123.8 and 174.6 reported units of alcohol consumed in the week before treatment. A high follow-up rate was achieved for both HD subjects and their relatives; there was close agreement between clients' reports, carers' reports and breathalyser readings with regard to further alcohol consumption. The HD subjects were visited at home an average of 6.9 times over 6.15 days. Chlormethiazole was prescribed in 36 cases at an average maximum daily dose of 6.3 capsules--significantly fewer than for the inpatient group. Both rates of completion and complication were virtually identical in the 2 groups. It is concluded that these data suggest HD is equivalent in both its safety and immediate efficacy to more expensive inpatient care.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The effect of 'standard drink' labelling on the ability of drinkers to pour a 'standard drink'.

Australia's National Health Policy on Alcohol has recommended that beverage containers be labelled so that alcohol content is 'readily understandable by the public'. Health promotion to increase the responsible use of alcohol now relies extensively on the concept of a standard drink--usually defined as 10 g of ethyl alcohol. Numerous difficulties confront a drinker who wishes to apply the standard drink system to monitor alcohol intake. This report describes a series of experimental tests of the proposal that these difficulties are minimised if alcohol containers have their alcohol content indicated in terms of standard drinks in addition to the usual percentage alcohol by volume method. Subjects were drinkers recruited from a Perth shopping mall and were tested only on beverage types they had consumed within the previous week. They were required to pour what they judged to be a single standard drink from a 750 ml bottle of either wine or beer. Beer drinkers achieved greater accuracy in this task when the bottles had standard drink labels, even when the glass size and beverage strength were varied. Wine drinkers had equal difficulty with this task whether standard drink or percentage labels were used. The addition of a 'ladder' up the side of a wine bottle with graduations in standard drinks would be necessary for wine drinkers to achieve a high level of accuracy. We conclude that labelling drink containers with their alcohol content in terms of standard drinks would better equip all drinkers to follow the advice of health educators.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Labelling alcoholic drinks: percentage proof, original gravity, percentage alcohol or standard drinks?

Drivers who wish to stay 'under the limit', problem drinkers wishing to control their drinking and literally anyone who drinks alcohol and is concerned about their health are all increasingly exhorted to monitor their alcohol intake by counting 'standard drinks' (each containing 8-14 g, depending on the country in question). Unfortunately, the evidence presented in this paper suggests that this system permits many errors. In particular, it requires two assumptions to be met: (1) that drinks of the same beverage type (i.e. beer, wine, fortified wine or spirits) normally contain the same percentage of alcohol by volume; and (2) that people serve, or are served, alcoholic drinks in standard serves. It is shown that in practice the strength of drinks available for sale of a given beverage type varies widely and that 'atypical' strengths form a significant proportion of alcohol sales. Furthermore, whether drinking occurs in a private residence or on licensed premises, it is usual for quantities greater than the supposed Australian standard of 10 g to be served. In practice, most people are unaware of the strengths of different beverages or the rough equivalences between them. Even if they are taught the standard drink system, they cannot make allowances for 'atypical' variations in strength. It is suggested these problems could be readily overcome if all alcohol containers were labelled in terms of standard drinks. The benefits of such a labelling system are discussed with regard to health promotion, accident prevention and the accuracy of surveys of alcohol use.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1990

Alcohol and drug dependence: syndrome, strong attachment or everyday behaviour?

The concept of the dependence syndrome has largely replaced that of 'alcoholism' and 'addiction' in official classifications of alcohol- and drug-related disorders. However, the utility of the concept has been widely disputed by psychologists and other social scientists. The authors of this paper, both clinical psychologists, hold opposing positions on this issue. Following a brief statement of these positions and an outline of the dependence syndrome, the authors debate a range of disputed issues.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1990

Home detoxification for problem drinkers: acceptability to clients, relatives, general practitioners and outcome after 60 days.

The value of a new Home Detoxification service was assessed in a variety of ways employing data collected from 41 clients of the service, their family and GP's. By 60 days from the start of treatment, 11 clients were abstinent, two were controlling their drinking with relatively few problems, 13 had 'improved', 14 were not 'improved' and one had an unknown outcome. Subsequent involvement in treatment by both clients and their partners was high in comparison with other studies. Significant predictors of 'Good' outcome included attendance for after-care by client and by spouse/partner and a low Alcohol Problems Inventory score. High levels of satisfaction were expressed with the HD service by clients, their carers and GP's. The great majority of clients gave 'home' as their preferred place of treatment and nearly half claimed they would have been unwilling to accept hospital care. There was evidence of significant, though modest, shifts in GP's management practices towards less use of hospitals and greater use of the patient's home after 15 months of the programme.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Detoxification from alcohol at home managed by general practitioners.

General practitioners have an important role in identifying and responding to problem drinkers, but no study has attempted to document their use of detoxification at home. A questionnaire was mailed to all general practitioners in Exeter Health District (n = 168) that was concerned with how they managed patients who presented with problems related to alcohol. The 145 (86%) responses showed that collectively they were identifying many more cases of problem drinking than any other local treatment agency. Of the estimated 230 patients a year for whom detoxification was arranged, half were managed at home, 40% in a local psychiatric hospital, and 9% in a local general hospital. Of those who were managed at home, 38% were unsupervised, a close relative held the medication for 45%, and 17% were supervised by a nurse. Fifty six percent (81) of doctors favoured chlormethiazole (Heminevrin) treatment, and many (17%) were prepared to prescribe this for longer than 10 days. Three quarters of the respondents thought that there was a need for specialist community services, such as community alcohol teams, to support general practitioners by supervising detoxification at home.

Alcoholism↗