[Use of alcoholism psychiatric services during an 18-month follow-up of alcoholic men].
BACKGROUND
The paper assesses the use of public psychiatric services by alcoholic patients for a period of 18 months, and looks for possible sociodemographic and clinical variables associated with higher use of services.


METHODS
A prospective study of a cohort of male alcoholics (n = 137) from Alava (Spain). Information was gathered at the beginning of a treatment episode using a structured interview on sociodemographic and clinical variables, including Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-60). At 18 month follow-up, clinical records were used to examine psychiatric inpatient and outpatient use in Alava (Spain). A service use score was set up to measure global use of services.


RESULTS
Eighty-three percent of alcoholics used outpatient services at least once, 48% attended the day-care service at least once, and 24% were admitted in a psychiatric unit at least once, during 18 month follow-up. Twenty percent of patients used 80% of services. The logistic regression models point to the age, civil status, alcohol consumption amount and previous history of alcoholic treatments as the main predictors for heavy use of psychiatric services.


CONCLUSIONS
A small percentage of alcoholics in treatment use the main part of psychiatric resources.
Aldama
E
E
Centro de Salud Mental de Ercilla, Bilbao, Osakidetza.
Ariño
J
J
Ballesteros
J
J
Segovia
M
M
Gutiérrez
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain