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The Relationship between Alcoholism and Neurosis:

Evidence from a Twin Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. J. Mullan ,
H. M. D. Gurling ,
B. E. Oppenheim  and
R. M. Murray
M. J. Mullan
Affiliation:
Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Hampstead, London NW3 2QG
H. M. D. Gurling*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
B. E. Oppenheim
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
R. M. Murray
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry
*
∗ Correspondence
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Abstract

The twin register of the Maudsley Hospital was used to select a series of monozygotic (MZ) and same-sexed dizygotic (DZ) twins who had been given an ICD8 diagnosis related to alcoholism. They and their co-twins were traced. Medical and drinking histories were compiled (from records and by interview) for 56 twin-pairs, to permit current and retrospective diagnosis of any neurotic disorders. RDC diagnoses of panic disorder generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder and phobias were more common in the alcoholic probands and the co-twins who were also alcoholics than in the normal-drinking co-twins. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) were completed by 54 individuals. Neuroticism scores were significantly higher for both male and female alcoholics than for their normal-drinking co-twins; and intra-pair differences in neuroticism were significantly correlated with intra-pair differences in severity of dependence. These results suggest that both clinically diagnosed neurotic illness and high neuroticism scores are more often a consequence than a cause of alcoholism.

Information

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 148 , Issue 4 , April 1986 , pp. 435 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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