Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1662-1666
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Long-term predictors of outcome in abstinent alcoholic men
PT Loosen, BW Dew and AJ Prange
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Twenty-nine alcoholic men who had been abstinent for more than 2 years were
evaluated behaviorally and neuroendocrinologically and then followed for 2
years. Mean length of abstinence at intake was shorter in the eight
patients with histories of depression (3.3 years) than in the patients
without such histories (6.8 years). Six patients relapsed during follow-up,
all of whom had been sober less than 5 years. None of the neuroendocrine
variables studied was predictive of outcome. In summary, abstinence of less
than 5 years and comorbidity with depression were most predictive of poor
outcome.
