[State of the equilibrium function in patients with chronic alcoholism].

Using stabilographic procedures and provocative tests, the present author examined 44 chronic alcoholics. He subdivided the patients into three categories--I, II and III--with respect to the stage of the disease. He detected changes in the equilibrium function which increased with the severity of the disease. Disorders in dynamic equilibrium were predominant at stages I and II, while disorders in static equilibrium were prevailing at stage III. The author maintains that a shift in the S/D ratio reflecting the relation between static and dynamic equilibrium is an early symptom of chronic alcoholism.