TYPES OF DEPRESSION IN ALCOHOLIC PATIENTS

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  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 130  (7) , 869-874
Abstract
Standardized clinical interviews of 48 alcoholic patients consecutively admitted to an alcoholism treatment program revealed that 22 (46%) had suffered major depressive episodes. However, only 2 had the typical depressed affect at the time of the interview. Cyclic mood swings, panic attacks and hypomania were common, indicating that this was a heterogeneous group of depressed patients. The alcoholism tended to precede the onset of depression, which was then followed by the seeking of help, but the whole sequence developed over a few years when the patients were in their early twenties. The depressed patients had more psychiatric, marital and legal difficulties than the nondepressed patients. There is a need for better definitions of affective disorders in alcoholic patients.