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Lifetime Alcohol Abuse in Institutionalized World War II Veterans

From the Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, North York, Ontario, Canada.

The authors document the lifetime prevalence and etiological correlates of alcohol abuse in a sample of elderly World War II veterans. Subjects (mean age 74.2 years), residing in a veterans' long-term care facility were given the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. A second investigator gave the Modified Combat Exposure Scale and administered a checklist of pre-war and wartime variables. The lifetime prevalence of alcohol abuse was 53%. There was no correlation between alcohol abuse and any other psychiatric diagnosis. There was a significant correlation between the severity of combat stress and subsequent alcohol abuse. Veterans with alcohol abuse also had significantly more wartime head injuries. There was also a trend for the alcoholic group to have experienced more pre-war stressors. Examination of pre-war variables and the severity of the combat stress might help to identify veterans at risk for development of alcohol abuse.