The Alcoholic Psychotic in the New York State Mental Hospitals, 1951–1960

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Abstract
This report is primarily concerned with persons with psychoses due to alcohol who were admitted, to, resident in, and removed from the 18 civil state hospitals of New York during the decade 1951-1960. The number of first admissions of alcoholic psychotics rose from 927 in 1951 to 1,365 in 1960; readmissions rose from 273 to 716. The rate of first admissions per 100,000 population 15 years and over rose from 8.1 in 1951 to 11.3 in 1960; the male rate rose from 13.4 to 18.5. The resident population of alcoholic psychotics in the hospitals rose from 2,853 at the end of 1951 to 4,103 at the end of 1960. Male admissions outnumbered females by over 3 to 1. About half of all 1st admissions were between the ages of 45 and 64, although there was some indication of an increase of hospitalization in younger age groups: the rate of first admissions of patients under 45 years increased from 17.9 per 100,000 in 1955 to 24.1 in 1960. The rate of first admissions for psychoses due to alcohol was almost 4 times greater among nonwhites than among whites: 33.5 compared to 9.1 per 100,000. Female alcoholic psychotics tended to be better educated than males, and there seemed to be a trend during the decade toward higher educational achievement among first admission alcoholic psychotics of both sexes. The per cent of alcoholic psychotic first admissions that had received some degree of high school and college training increased from 29.3 in the period of 1949-1951 to 40.3 in 1955-1960. Although 1st admission rates increased for every census area in New York State, the greatest increases occurred in suburban areas and in non-metropolitan upstate communities of over 10,000 population. Fully 55% of the male and 40% of the female first admissions during the 1951-1960 period were single, divorced or separated. During the decade 1951-1960 the resident population of alcoholic psychotics grew steadily at an average annual rate of growth of 4.1%. By 1960 alcoholic psychotics constituted a larger proportion (4.6%) of all resident patients in the civil state hospitals than they had in 1951. Females tended to remain in hospital longer than males and both the death and discharge rates of male alcoholic psychotics were greater than those of females. The number of patients released from the hospital on convalescent care status increased throughout the period. However, the rate of return to the hospital from convalescent care increased from year to year as well. The death rate of male alcoholic psychotics in the civil state hospitals was about 30% higher than that of females. Average age at time of death in the hospital increased over the decade by almost 2.5 years, with females showing the greatest proportional lengthening of life span. Average duration of stay of the alcoholic psychotic who died in the hospital was slightly over 7 years.

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