Comorbid psychiatric diagnosis and long-term drinking outcome

This longitudinal study of alcoholics investigated which psychiatric comorb idities among alcoholics would predict very long-term drinking outcome. Pre vious research has yielded inconsistent findings. We hypothesized that anti social personality characteristics alone among psychiatric comorbidities wo uld show an association with poorer drinking outcome. The use of multiple m easures of psychopathology, a relatively large sample size, and an absence of systematic treatment matching to particular patient groups were all aspe cts of the current study which allowed for a comprehensive examination of t his issue. the study used single and multivariate correlational analyses. T he setting was an inpatient Veterans Administration alcohol dependence trea tment unit and follow-up clinic. Participants were 255 adult male veterans diagnosed with alcohol dependence. The predictors were the Symptom Checklis t 90 (SCL), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory (MMPI), and Psychia tric Diagnostic Interview (PDI). The outcome measure was the Clinician Rati ng of Drinking Scale (CRDS). The study showed that antisocial personality c haracteristics alone were consistently associated with a worse longterm dri nking outcome. However, despite the consistent presence of a statistical as sociation between antisocial personality characteristics and a poorer long- term drinking outcome, the small size of the relationship is a very importa nt issue which is discussed in detail. Copyright(C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders C ompany.