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Alcoholism and phobic anxiety—a clinical‐demographic comparison
Author(s) -
LOTUFONETO FRANCISCO,
GENTIL VALENTIM
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1994.tb00925.x
Subject(s) - anxiety , phobic disorder , psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , specific phobia , medicine , anxiety disorder
The prevalence of anxious and phobic symptoms in 97 alcohol‐dependent and alcohol abuse patients, and that of alcohol abuse and dependence in 90 patients with panic/agoraphobia (PAG), were respectively determined in out‐patients attending alcoholism and anxiety clinics in a university psychiatric hospital. The clinical and socio‐demographic data of both the phobics and non‐phobics of the alcoholic sample, and the alcohol dependents and non‐dependents of the PAG sample, were compared. Panic attacks and phobias were associated with increased severity and worse prognosis for alcoholism. The infrequent instances of alcohol use to cope with anxiety in the PAG sample were associted with symptoms of social phobia. Alcohol abuse and dependence were more frequent in PAG men who used alcohol to cope with anxiety. Finally, the frequency and intensity of the panic and phobic symptoms of the alcoholic and PAG samples were contrasted. The alcoholism clinic patients with anxiety had less frequent and milder panic attacks. The predominant diagnosis of this group was agoraphobia, which was infrequent in the anxiety disorders clinic.