Clinical correlates of desire for treatment for current alcohol dependence among patients with a primary psychiatric disorder.

Background And Objectives: Rates of treatment-seeking for alcohol use disorders are notably low. To elucidate the clinical correlates of treatment-seeking for alcoholism, this study compared patients with current alcohol dependence and a primary psychiatric diagnosis who endorsed a desire for alcoholism treatment to patients who refused treatment or who were unsure.

Method: A total of 131 (54 females) psychiatric outpatients with current alcohol dependence completed an intake assessment at a large hospital-based psychiatric clinic and at the end of the intake were asked whether they would like to receive treatment for alcohol problems.

Analyzing offense patterns as a function of mental illness to test the criminalization hypothesis.

Objective: Programs for offenders with mental illness seem to be based on a hypothesis that untreated symptoms are the main source of criminal behavior and that linkage with psychiatric services is the solution. This study tested this criminalization hypothesis, which implies that these individuals have unique patterns of offending.

Methods: Participants were 220 parolees; 111 had a serious mental illness, and 109 did not.

Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE): Predictive utility and reliability across interview and self-report administrations.

The Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) is a widely used and well-established measure of the level of response to alcohol. Although the SRE has been successfully used in studies of alcoholism etiology, including genetics, studies to date have not compared the self-report and interview formats. The objectives of this study are to: (a) test the predictive utility of the subscales of the SRE in relation to alcohol problems; and (b) test the reliability of the SRE in interview versus self-report formats.