Individuals with excessive alcohol intake recruited by advertisement: demographic and clinical characteristics.
OBJECTIVE
Studies have shown that most individuals with alcohol problems have never received any treatment for their alcoholism. The purpose of the present study was to describe demographic and clinical characteristics in male individuals with excessive alcohol intake who were recruited by advertisements. These characteristics were compared between individuals with or without prior treatment histories.


METHODS
Subjects (n = 367) responded to the advertisements in a regional daily newspaper and called the investigators. A structured interview was performed and a complete dataset of demographic and clinical information was collected in 342 individuals.


RESULTS
Individuals with no prior treatment history (n = 238) were found to be more often cohabitant, employed, and they reported fewer on-going psychiatric symptoms than individuals with treatment histories (n = 104).


CONCLUSIONS
Since individuals with no prior treatment history seldom experience psychiatric symptoms, they are less likely to seek treatment in the health care system. It is therefore of importance to find ways to reach this 'hidden' group early with excessive alcohol consumption. One way to do so might be via alcohol treatment programs at working places since the majority of them are employed.
Berglund
Kristina
K
Department of Psychology, Göteborg University P.O. Box 500 SE-405 30, Göteborg, Sweden.
Fahlke
Claudia
C
Berggren
Ulf
U
Eriksson
Matts
M
Balldin
Jan
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003710:Demography; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index