OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper was to provide a clinical review of the literature on the relation of alcoholism to suicidal behavior. METHOD Studies of alcoholism and suicidal behavior available in MEDLINE, Institute for Scientific Information Databases (Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index), EMBASE, and Cochrane Library we...

Three hundred male Irish alcoholics were selected from 508 consecutive alcoholic admissions to hospital. Using well defined diagnostic criteria, they were divided into three subgroups (1) primary alcoholics, (2) alcoholics with secondary affective disorder and (3) those with primary affective disorder and secondary alcoholism. Although the three groups reported differences in past history and f...

Some patients come into treatment with clear cases of both major depression (MDD) and alcoholism. Although assumptions are often made about the relationships of these two conditions, little empirical information exists on the effects of changes in MDD on the course of alcoholism in patients presenting at psychiatric facilities. The authors used survival analysis with time-dependent covariates t...

Seasonal changes in mood and behavior (seasonality) may be closely related to alcoholism. Some patients with alcoholism have a seasonal pattern to their alcohol misuse. They may be self-medicating an underlying seasonal affective disorder (SAD) with alcohol or manifesting a seasonal pattern to alcohol-induced depression. Both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the etiology and pat...

Medications can be used to treat alcoholism by decreasing craving for alcohol or by blocking the development of processes that lead to addiction. Medications also can enable alcoholic patients to participate more effectively in treatment by decreasing psychiatric symptoms associated with alcoholism or by improving alcohol-related intellectual impairment. Many promising medications for treating ...

BACKGROUND Alcoholism and depression are often comorbid. Studies suggest that depressed subjects with alcoholism have more chronic impairment and suicidal behavior than individuals with either diagnosis alone. The reason for higher rate of suicide and suicide attempts in comorbid subjects is uncertain. We explored clinical characteristics that may be associated with this increased suicidality. ...

AIMS Neurocognitive deficits in chronic alcoholic men are well documented. Impairments include memory, visual-spatial processing, problem solving and executive function. The cause of impairment could include direct effects of alcohol toxicity, pre-existing cognitive deficits that predispose towards substance abuse, comorbid psychiatric disorders and abuse of substances other than alcohol. Cigar...

OBJECTIVE Depression (major depression or depressive syndrome) is more prevalent in alcoholic than in nonalcoholic subjects in families with multiple members with alcoholism studied as part of the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). First-degree relatives of probands with comorbid alcoholism and depression have a higher prevale...