Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:1059-1062
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Alcoholism in Peru
J Yamamoto, JA Silva, T Sasao, C Wang and L Nguyen
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute 90024-1759.
OBJECTIVE: Alcoholism is a problem of worldwide concern. Full appreciation
of this international problem requires that adequate diagnostic measures be
constructed and that comparable measures for different cultures be
available so that valid differences in prevalence across cultures can be
detected. A Spanish-language version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule
(DIS) has been used for epidemiologic studies of alcohol abuse and
dependence in Los Angeles Mexican- Americans and mainland Puerto Ricans,
and the authors used the same instrument to conduct a similar study in
Peru. METHOD: A population sample (N = 815) from the Independencia district
of Lima, Peru, was chosen for interviews with a revised form of the Spanish
translation of the DIS. Lifetime prevalence rates of alcoholism and other
DSM-III diagnoses were determined. RESULTS: The prevalence of alcohol abuse
or dependence was higher among the men (34.80%) than among the women
(2.46%), but the onset for women was earlier. Alcoholism was strongly
associated with antisocial personality disorder and with drug abuse or
dependence. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of alcoholism for the Peruvian men
is higher than prevalences for men in U.S. studies, but the prevalence
among the Peruvian women is one of the lowest reported. The high prevalence
among men is likely due to cultural mores but may also be linked to the
stresses found in impoverished societies undergoing rapid social, cultural,
and economic change.
