A NATIONWIDE REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF TREATMENT-SEEKING ALCOHOLICS - A STUDY OF PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY

In order to elucidate the psychiatric comorbidity of patients in alcoh ol and other substance use disorder treatment we examined a representa tive sample of such patients in Iceland (249 men and 102 women). Over 70% of pure alcoholics and over 90% of polysubstance users had comorbi d diagnoses, a prevalence higher than in the Epidemiological Catchment Area study in the United States, but similar to clinical studies from North America. The most prevalent disorders were: affective (33%), an xiety (65%), antisocial personality disorder (28%) and psychosexual dy sfunction (20%). Pure alcoholics and polysubstance users in studies on psychiatric comorbidity should be separated. Anxiety and affective di sorders influence treatment seeking. Findings concerning the impact of psychiatric comorbidity on course should be comparable between North America and Europe.