Background: Hazardous alcohol use in psychiatric patients may increase the risk of the development of a substance use disorder and negatively affect the course of the psychiatric disorder.
Aims: To investigate the prevalence of hazardous alcohol and drug use in a Swedish psychiatric outpatient population with particular focus on hazardous alcohol consumption and assess relationships of hazardous alcohol use to sex, age and psychiatric diagnosis.
Methods: General psychiatric outpatients, n = 1,679, completed a self-rating Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).
Results: Hazardous or harmful alcohol habits occurred among 22% of all women and 30% of all men with higher prevalence among younger patients. Nine percent of all women and 22 % of all men reported binge drinking. Binge drinking was more frequent in younger subjects. Women with a personality disorder diagnosis had a higher frequency of at risk drinking. Apart from that, psychiatric diagnosis was unrelated to rate of hazardous drinking.
Conclusions: Hazardous alcohol use was common in this psychiatric outpatient population. With regard to possible risks related to drinking in psychiatric patients, alcohol habits should be assessed as a part of good clinical practice.
Keywords: Hazardous alcohol use; binge drinking; brief intervention; psychiatry.