Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T18:40:58.267Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Comparison of Alcoholics with and without Coexisting Affective Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

K. O'Sullivan
Affiliation:
Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital, P.O. Box 585, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8N 3K7
P. Whillans
Affiliation:
Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital
M. Daly
Affiliation:
St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
B. Carroll
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
A. Clare
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AS
J. Cooney
Affiliation:
St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland

Summary

Three hundred male Irish alcoholics were selected from 508 consecutive alcoholic admissions to hospital. Using well defined diagnostic criteria, they were divided into three subgroups (1) primary alcoholics, (2) alcoholics with secondary affective disorder and (3) those with primary affective disorder and secondary alcoholism. Although the three groups reported differences in past history and family history of affective disorder and in time spent in hospital for both alcoholism and affective disorder, there was little to distinguish them in behaviour associated with alcoholism or in family history of alcoholism. The implications of these findings and their significance for the relationship of affective disorder and alcoholism are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amark, C. (1951) A study in alcoholism: Clinical, social, psychiatric and genetic investigations. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica, Supplement No. 7.Google Scholar
Barraclough, B., Bunch, J., Nelson, B. & Sainsbury, P. (1974) A hundred cases of suicide: Clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 355–73.Google Scholar
Cadoret, R. & Winokur, G. (1974) Depression in alcoholism. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 233, 3439.Google Scholar
Cassidy, W. L., Flanagan, N. B., Spellman, N. & Cohen, M. E. (1957) Clinical observations in manic depressive disease: A quantitative study of 100 manic depressive patients and 50 medically sick controls. Journal of American Medical Association, 164, 1535–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloninger, C. R., Christiansen, K. O., Reich, T. & Gottesman, I. (1978) Implications of sex differences in the prevalences of antisocial personality, alcoholism and criminality for familial transmission. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 941–51.Google Scholar
Daly, M., O'Sullivan, K., Clare, A. & Cooney, J. G. (1980) Organic pathology in a group of hospitalized Irish male alcoholics. Journal of the Irish Medical Association, 73, 128–31.Google Scholar
Dunner, D. L., Hensel, B. M. & Fieve, R. R. (1979) Bipolar illness: Factors in drinking behaviour. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 583–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feighner, J. B., Robins, E., Guze, S., Woodruff, R., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 5763.Google Scholar
Freed, E. X. (1970) Alcoholism and manic depressive disorder: Some perspectives. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcoholism, 31, 6289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mayfield, D. G. & Coleman, L. (1968) Alcohol use and affective disorder. Diseases of the Nervous System, 29, 467–74.Google Scholar
Morrison, J. R. (1974) Bipolar affective disorder and alcoholism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 1130–4.Google ScholarPubMed
O'Sullivan, K. (1981) Somatic dysfunction in an Irish male alcoholic population. Proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine. Montreal, 1981.Google Scholar
O'Sullivan, K., Daly, M., Carroll, B., Clare, A. & Cooney, J. (1979) Alcoholism and affective disorder among patients in a Dublin hospital. Journal of Studies on Alcoholism, 40, 1014–22.Google Scholar
Pond, S., Becker, C., Vandervoort, R., Philipps, N., Bowler, R. & Peck, C. (1981) An evaluation of the effects of lithium in the treatment of chronic alcoholism: Clinical results. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 5, 247–51.Google Scholar
Pottinger, N., McKernon, J., Patrie, L., Weisman, M. M., Ruben, H. & Neubury, P. (1978) The frequency of persistence of depressive symptoms in the alcohol abuser. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 166, 562–9.Google Scholar
Robins, E., Murphy, G., Wilkinson, R. H., Gassner, S. & Kayes, J. (1959) Some clinical consideration in the prevention of suicide based on a study of 134 successful cases. American Journal of Public Health, 49, 888–99.Google Scholar
Reich, L., Davies, R. & Himneloch, J. (1974) Excessive alcohol use in manic depressive illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 83–6.Google Scholar
Schuckit, M. A. & Winokur, G. (1972) A short term follow-up on women alcoholics. Diseases of the Nervous System, 33, 672–8.Google Scholar
Sherfey, N. J. (1955) Psychopathology and Character Structure in Chronic Alcoholism. In Etiology of Chronic Alcoholism (ed. Dietheln, O.), pp 1642. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Tillotson, K. J. & Fleming, R. (1937) Personality and sociological factors in prognosis and treatment of chronic alcoholism. New England Journal of Medicine, 217, 611–15.Google Scholar
Viamontes, J. A. (1972) Review of drug effectiveness in the treatment of alcoholism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 1570–1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weingold, H. B., Lachin, J. M., Bell, A. H. & Coxe, R. C. (1968) Depression as a symptom of alcoholism. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 73, 195–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisman, M. M. & Miers, J. K. (1980) Clinical depression in alcoholism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 372–3.Google Scholar
Winokur, G., Reich, T., Rimmer, J. & Pitts, F. N. (1970) Alcoholism III: Diagnosis and familial psychiatric illness in 259 alcoholic probands. Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 104–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winokur, G., Rimmer, J. & Reich, T. (1971) Alcoholism IV: Is there more than one type of alcoholism? British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 525–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.