The young male alcoholic. A pilot study.

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Abstract
Several demographic, drinking and diagnostic variables of 20 younger (mean age 23.8) and 20 older (mean age 48.4) male alcoholics in a Veterans Administration hospital were compared. Most of the older men had served in World War II and .apprx. 1/2 of the younger ones had served in Vietnam. The younger alcoholics had their 1st drink earlier, experienced their 1st intoxication earlier, described their 1st intoxication as more positive, were less often solitary drinkers, listed alcohol less often as their substance of 1st choice, were more likely to have alcoholic parents, had a lower occupational level, had a more irregular work record and had more trouble with military authorities than had the older alcoholics (P < 0.05). Younger alcoholics more often attributed their alcoholism to military service, more often mixed alcohol with other drugs, had a higher mean number of problems, had more trouble with school authorities, were more aggressive, alienated, isolated, schizophrenic and psychopathically deviant and were less neurotic and depressed than the older alcoholics (P < 0.01). Younger alcoholics also used street drugs less often than the older alcoholics (P < 0.001). Implications for treatment and the question of whether these differences represent earlier and later phases of the same type of alcoholism or true generational disparity are discussed.