Alcohol Use, Mental Disorders and Suicidal Ideation in Primary Care Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Alcohol use is believed to be associated with psychiatric morbidity and suicidality. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of extensive use of alcohol and its relationship with mental disorders and suicidal deation in primary care patients. Methods: 502 adult consecutive primary care patients (135 men and 367 women) were evaluated for mental disorders, alcohol use and suicidal ideation, using standart diagnostic instrument, Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Results: According to the MINI, extensive alcohol use was found in 31.2% of patients (48.9% in men and 24.9% in women, p<0.001. Suicidal ideation was found in 3.6% of patients (3.1% in men, and 4.1% women, p>0.05). Suicidal ideation was found in 4.5% in extensive alcohol users vs. 3.5% in non- users (p>0.05). Extensive alcohol users had lower incidence of depression, (14% vs. 26.2%, p=0.002) and lower incidence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (19.1% va. 28.2%, p=0.027) than non- users. However, after controling for gender, this difference lost statistical significance in GAD patients, but remained significant in depressed female patients (p=0.012). Conclusions: We found significantly higher prevalence of extensive alcohol use in primary care male patients, compared to female patients. Alcohol use ws not related with suicidal ideation, but it was related with lower incidence of depression in female primary care patients.