Sober living

Alcoholic ketoacidosis is a recognised acute complication in alcohol dependent patients. Given the frequency with which the condition is seen in other countries, the possibility exists that many cases may be unrecognised and misdiagnosed in UK EDs. AKA should be included in the differential diagnosis of alcohol dependent patients presenting with acute illness. Management is based around exclusion of serious pathology and specific treatment for AKA where it is present. A possible link between AKA and sudden death in chronic alcoholism has been proposed…

Cognitive dissonance is the unpleasant mental state that may result if someone really does have certain beliefs but thinks or acts in a way that contradicts them. In groups, the familiar prior knowledge about own group and other groups is captured by social identity theory and self-categorization theory (Sect. 2.3). In addition, group-level schemas and categories at the societal level take the form of Moscovici’s social representations; shared social understandings make the unfamiliar into the familiar by reference to old socially shared concepts. When…