Alcoholic liver disease in a psychiatric hospital.

Liver biopsy was analysed for 41 alcoholics, satisfying RDC criteria. Alcoholic liver disease was diagnosed as per the guidelines from the WHO/ICMR Workshop. For the entire group mean consumption of alcohol was 183.lg. of ethanol for an average of 9.7 years. Only 5 persons (12.2%) had normal liver. Six persons (14.6%) had Fatty liver, 23 (56.1%) had alcoholic hepatitis, and 4(9.7%) had precirrhosis and cirrhosis. Biochemical analysis showed that alcoholics had elevated values of SGOT, SGPT and GGT as compared to control non - drinker population. Malnutrition did not appear to be a contaminating factor for the observed histopathological findings.