title: Abusers of alcohol immediately prior to pension.
abstract: In the granting of a disability pension to an alcohol abuser society is taking a somewhat controversial step. In order to elucidate the overall situation of these abusers, the quality of life of 61 abusing applicants was examined. The sample represents all 78 first-time applicants during an 18-month period in a geographically defined region in the county of Ostergötland in Sweden. As expected, apart from their extensive abuse, the applicants were in bad psychiatric-psychological condition and demonstrated severe neuro-psychological and biochemical disturbances. In addition, their social network was somewhat restricted and also otherwise rather problematic. These deviations were evident in relation to a matched group of newly pensioned non-abusers. In comparison with another more closely matched group of abusers undergoing rehabilitation, the differences appeared mainly within the psychiatric-psychological sphere. This is a report in a series from the research project "Abuse of alcohol - Disability pension - Quality of life".
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000139:chemically induced; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010415:Pensions; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden