PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST SCORE CHANGES FOR WIVES OF ALCOHOLICS DURING PERIODS OF DRINKING AND SOBRIETY.

This paper examines variations in psychophysiological symptom scores for wives of alcoholics in contrasting periods of abstinence and drinking. Much of the applicable literature has stressed that these wives unconsciously want to maintain their husbands' active alcoholism and are very resistant to treatment efforts. It has also been stated that many of these women are apt to develop compensatory symptoms of disturbance if their spouses achieve sobriety. The women in all four comparison groups revealed less symptoms when their husbands were abstaining, with no major differences between those wives with currently drinking spouses and those whose husbands were currently abstaining.