Psychological symptoms, psychiatric disorder and alcohol dependence amongst men and women attending a community‐based voluntary agency and an Alcohol Treatment Unit

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Abstract
One-fifth of clients attending a community-based voluntary agency presented for treatment with an alcohol problem complicated by affective disorder, phobic anxiety or personality disorder. A matched sample of patients recruited from an Alcohol Treatment Unit, and assessed using the same stringent clinical criteria, had similar levels of formal psychiatric disorder, except for a small group of women. One quarter of women in this group were phobic with some overlap of affective disorder. Rates of psychological symptoms as opposed to psychiatric disorder were high in both samples and appeared to be associated with severity of dependence on alcohol. No sex differences were apparent in the rates of psychological symptoms. The practical as well as theoretical implications of these findings were discussed.