Psychiatric comorbidity related to alcohol use among adolescents.

INTRODUCTION Alcohol use is apparently related to high prevalences of psychiatric comorbidity, although scientific studies focusing the problem among adolescents are still lacking. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the performance of adolescents with different patterns of alcohol use on screening instruments for psychiatric disorders. METHOD Forty-one adolescents seeking assistance for alcohol-related problems were compared to a nonclinical sample of 43 adolescents. These 84 users were divided in three sub-groups according to pattern of recent alcohol intake. All subjects responded to validated versions of screening scales for mental disorders. Comparison of groups was held through Analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ) aims to evaluate the presence of mental disorders. Heavy users presented significant higher scores than the other groups (p < .05) and half of them presented a psychiatry diagnosis. The same was observed for the CES-D. Using the cut-off, 76.9% of daily-users adolescents were considered depressive. In the Beck Anxiety Inventory the same was observed and 50.0% of those adolescents who drank daily could be considered at risk of presenting anxiety disorders. CONCLUSION We detected higher prevalences of mental disorders among heavy alcohol users. This reinforces the importance of detailed diagnostic investigation of patients.