THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DSM-III-R ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE, PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AND DRUG-USE

This paper examines the association between DSM-III-R alcohol dependen ce, psychological distress and the frequency of drug use in a sample o f 219 men and 162 women consecutively admitted to nine alcohol treatme nt programs in a Northern California county. Results show that psychol ogical distress is higher among men who are more severely dependent on alcohol and among those who have lower education; women who are less alcohol dependent and women who are younger have higher scores in psyc hological distress than other women. With regard to drug use, about 65 % of the men and 64% of the women report using a drug other than alcoh ol at least once a week during the 12 months prior to admission into t reatment. Among both men and women, the drugs most frequently used are crack/cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine. Among men, regression a nalysis shows that drug use is associated with being younger. Among wo men results show that the predictors of drug use are being younger, be ing unemployed, having a higher income, being a heavier drinker and ha ving fewer symptoms of alcohol dependence. These results show a comple x pattern of association across alcohol dependence, drug use and psych ological distress. Knowledge of this pattern is necessary for tailorin g effective clinical interventions to clients with different kinds of comorbidity.