Use of alcoholism psychiatric services by male alcoholics in an 18-month follow-up

BACKGROUND: The paper assesses the use of public psychiatric services by alcoholic patients for a period of 18 months, and looks for possible sociodemographic and clinical variables associated with higher use of services. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective study of a cohort of male alcoholics (n = 137) from Alava (Spain). Information was gathered at the begining of a treatment episode using a structured interview on sociodemographic and clinical variables, including Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-60). At 18 month follow-up, clinical records were used to examine psychiatric inpatient and outpatient use in Alava (Spain). A service use score was set up to measure global use of services. RESULTS: Eighty-three percent of alcoholics used outpatient services at least once, 48% attended the day-care service at least once, and 24% were admitted in a psychiatric unit at least once, during 18 month follow-up, Twenty percent of patients used 80% of services. The logistic regression models point to the age, civil status, alcohol consumption amount and previous history of alcoholic treatments as the main predictors for heavy use of psychiatric services. CONCLUSIONS: A Small percentage of alcoholics in treatment use the main part of psychiatric resources.