Patterns of alcohol abuse from the viewpoint of multiple substance abuse.

1. As a result of examining the alcoholism of 172 subjects, from the view point of multiple abuse in a long-term process, we were able to classify alcoholism into three patterns: Pattern I is the alcohol alone type, Pattern II is the alcoholism with legal drugs, such as hypnotics and tranquilizers and Pattern III is the alcoholism with illicit drugs, such as organic solvents and methamphetamine. 2. We ascertained the alcohol alone abuse type (Pattern I) existed. 3. Pattern II resembles Pattern I in living status, delinquency, experience of criminal acts and characters except that the abusers in Pattern II were younger than those in Pattern I. 4. The abusers in Pattern III showed a trend to incline to multiple abuse. They had antisocial characters and family problems and the level of their social life was disrupted from their youth in many cases.