Demographic and clinical characteristics in groups of individual with exessive alcohol intake

Abstract: People who misuse alcohol are a heterogeneous group with different etiology and clinical characteristics. One aim in the field of alcohol research has been to categorise these individuals in order to study possible pathways into alcohol use disorders and the long-term course of alcoholism. This thesis includes two studies whose aims are to investigate whether individuals with excessive alcohol drinking differ in demographic and clinical characteristics, depending on gender, age and earlier experiences of alcohol treatment. The aim of study I was to describe demographic and clinical characteristics in individuals with excessive alcohol intake (n = 367) recruited by advertisements and to compare these individuals according to their prior experience of treatment. The results showed that individuals with no prior treatment history (n = 238) were found to be more often cohabitant and employed. They also reported fewer on-going psychiatric symptoms than individuals with prior treatment histories. The aim of study II was to investigate alcohol-dependent individuals (n = 125) in an inpatient treatment setting and analyse specific characteristics such as substance use and health functioning in these individuals. Gender and two age-groups were compared, respectively, in these characteristics. Differences between genders were found in drinking patterns where women had a later onset of excessive alcohol consumption and they consumed lesser quantities during the last year compared to men. Differences between the two age-groups (29-47 years and 49-69 years) were found in drinking patterns as well as in somatic and psychiatric symptoms. The younger individuals had an earlier onset of excessive consumption and they also had more current and lifetime psychiatric symptoms, whereas the older individuals had more somatic symptoms. The results of the two studies reveal that there are differences between different groups of individuals with excessive alcohol intake, when taking into consideration earlier treatment experience, age and gender. Furthermore, the results suggest that a way to reach these individuals with excessive alcohol intake could be via alcohol treatment programs at working places and not via the health care system since they are less inclined to seek treatment for psychiatric and somatic symptoms. It may also be of importance to have an age-perspective in treatment planning for alcohol-dependent individuals, where younger individuals need more psychiatric consultations whereas their older counterparts instead need more of consultations by medical professionals.