Excessive Alcohol Use in Manic-Depressive Illness

Of various factors the authors examined, only the excessive use of alcohol distinguished those manic patients with a history of hospitalization from those without one. Half of the hospitalized subjects had a history of an inordinate use of alcohol; this excessive use predominated during the manic phase, a fact that does not support the popular view that alcohol is used to counteract depression. Patients themselves frequently reported a deliberale use of alcohol to decrease manic symptoms and a tendency to shun alcohol during the depressive phase. Alcohol did not seem to alter the presenting symptoms of hospitalized manic patients, since irritability and the loss of impulse control were similar among the drinkers and nondrinkers.