Citation

Herrmann N, Eryavec G. Am. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 1996; 4(1): 39-45.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, North York, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1097/00019442-199624410-00005

PMID

28531054

Abstract

The authors document the lifetime prevalence and etiological correlates of alcohol abuse in a sample of elderly World War II veterans. Subjects (mean age 74.2 years), residing in a veterans' long-term care facility were given the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. A second investigator gave the Modified Combat Exposure Scale and administered a checklist of pre-war and wartime variables. The lifetime prevalence of alcohol abuse was 53%. There was no correlation between alcohol abuse and any other psychiatric diagnosis. There was a significant correlation between the severity of combat stress and subsequent alcohol abuse. Veterans with alcohol abuse also had significantly more wartime head injuries. There was also a trend for the alcoholic group to have experienced more pre-war stressors. Examination of pre-war variables and the severity of the combat stress might help to identify veterans at risk for development of alcohol abuse.

Copyright © 1996 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en