Psychiatric Comorbidity Related to Alcohol Use Among Adolescents
por FIDALGO, T. M.; SILVEIRA, E. D.; and SILVEIRA, D. X. em
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Introduction: Alcohol use is apparently related to high prevalences of
psychiatric comorbidity, although scientific studies focusing the problem among
adolescents are still lacking. Objective: To evaluate the performance of
adolescents with different patterns of alcohol use on screening instruments for
psychiatric disorders. Method: Forty-one adolescents seeking assistance for
alcohol-related problems were compared to a nonclinical sample of 43 adolescents.
These 84 users were divided in three sub-groups according to pattern of
recent alcohol intake. All subjects responded to validated versions of screening
scales for mental disorders. Comparison of groups was held through Analysis
of variance (ANOVA). Results: Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ) aims to evaluate
the presence of mental disorders. Heavy users presented significant higher
scores than the other groups (p < .05) and half of them presented a psychiatry
diagnosis. The same was observed for the CES-D. Using the cut-off, 76.9% of
daily-users adolescents were considered depressive. In the Beck Anxiety Inventory
the same was observed and 50.0% of those adolescents who drank daily could be
considered at risk of presenting anxiety disorders. Conclusion: We detected higher
prevalences of mental disorders among heavy alcohol users. This reinforces the
importance of detailed diagnostic investigation of patients.