Comorbid psychiatric diagnosis and long-term drinking outcome☆

Abstract 

This longitudinal study of alcoholics investigated which psychiatric comorbidities among alcoholics would predict very long-term drinking outcome. Previous research has yielded inconsistent findings. We hypothesized that antisocial personality characteristics alone among psychiatric comorbidities would show an association with poorer drinking outcome. The use of multiple measures of psychopathology, a relatively large sample size, and an absence of systematic treatment matching to particular patient groups were all aspects of the current study which allowed for a comprehensive examination of this issue. The study used single and multivariate correlational analyses. The setting was an inpatient Veterans Administration alcohol dependence treatment unit and follow-up clinic. Participants were 255 adult male veterans diagnosed with alcohol dependence. The predictors were the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI). The outcome measure was the Clinician Rating of Drinking Scale (CRDS). The study showed that antisocial personality characteristics alone were consistently associated with a worse long-term drinking outcome. However, despite the consistent presence of a statistical association between antisocial personality characteristics and a poorer long-term drinking outcome, the small size of the relationship is a very important issue which is discussed in detail.

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