CLINICIAN ASSESSMENT OF PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY AND ALCOHOLISM SEVERITY IN ADULT ALCOHOLIC INPATIENTS

Although psychiatric comorbidity and alcoholism severity are risk fact ors for poor outcomes in treating alcoholism, little is known about wh ether clinicians assess these conditions accurately. In this study we evaluated four clinicians' assessments of two indicators of alcoholism severity and three psychiatric comorbidities in 78 inpatients in thei r third to seventh day of hospitalization in alcohol treatment program s. Clinicians overestimated the number of days drinking in 28% of subj ects, and the number of drinks per drinking day in 37% of subjects. Cl inicians underestimated alcohol consumption for patients with higher i ncomes. Clinicians correctly diagnosed 67% of 18 subjects with antisoc ial personality disorder, 65% of 26 with major depression, and 89% of 28 with drug abuse. These preliminary results need to be replicated in larger samples of clinicians to determine whether interventions are n eeded to improve the recognition of important prognostic factors in th e treatment of alcoholic patients.