The Quantitative Measurement of Depression and Anxiety in Male Alcoholics

Depression and anxiety have been reported to be commonly associated with alcoholism. Most attempts to clarify this relationship have suffered from a patient selection bias in that only those alcoholics who sought treatment were studied. The authors performed quantitative measurements of depression and anxiety in a group of48 men referred for treatment solely on the basis of excessive drinking. The prevalence of depression and anxiety as measured by both the Zung and Hamilton scales was lower than that shown in previous studies. The results of this study indicate that clinical depression and anxiety are not common problems in young, healthy male alcoholics.