Intended for healthcare professionals

Medicine And The Media

Gripping addictions

BMJ 1995; 311 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.311.7018.1512 (Published 02 December 1995) Cite this as: BMJ 1995;311:1512
  1. Alex Paton, retired consultant physician
  1. Oxfordshire

    I once looked after “a sweet old lady” with a severe peripheral neuropathy caused by her enjoyment of a couple of bottles of sherry a day. When she eventually went home home cured, she promised she wouldn't touch another drop. On returning to outpatients she assured me with a beatific smile that she had kept her word; when I spoke to her niece she said: “I suppose she told you she wasn't drinking. It's nonsense; she's back on the bottle again.” Judy Upton's new play Bruises reminded me how our need …

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