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A Descriptive Study of Elderly Community-Dwelling Alcoholic Patients in the Rural South

University of Virginia, Health Sciences Center, Department of Psychiatric Medicine, Blue Ridge Hospital, Drawer D, Charlottesville, VA 22901.

Alcohol-related disorders, estimated to be more prevalent in the South, are associated with serious comorbid disorders, such as depression and suicide. In a rural outreach program, the authors examined patients with a diagnosis of alcoholism and compared them with nonalcoholic patients on various demographic and descriptive variables. Of 166 patients referred to the program, 35 (21.1%) had an alcohol-related disorder: Alcoholism was significantly associated with male gender and younger age, but nearly half of the alcoholic subjects were women. Alcoholism is associated with inappropriate health care utilization; alcohol-related disorders produced significantly more emergency room visits and somewhat more hospital admission; these patients were less likely to have a primary care physician. No patient was receiving treatment for alcoholism.