Alcohol consumption, clinical findings and retrospective psycho social data in a random sample of men in suburban Stockholm.

A sample of 200 men from the general population of suburban Stockholm was investigated regarding alcohol consumption, with the aim of studying psychosocial factors in relation to consumption. Three symptoms related to heavy drinking were studied: (1) Inability to cut down or stop drinking, referred to here as subjective, relative loss of control over drinking; (2) morning shakes and malaise relieved by drinking, termed morning drinks; and (3) amnesia induced by alcohol, referred to as blackouts. The subjects were divided into three groups: (I) 41 men with low alcohol consumption without any symptom of alcoholism, (II) 106 men with low, moderate or high alcohol consumption with different numbers of such symptoms and (III) 53 heavy-drinking men with two or three symptoms. There was a higher frequency of psycho-somatic problems in group III (51%) (p less than 0.01) than in group I (22%). The children of group III had greater problems at school. Group III had more often been judged guilty of crimes (26%) (p less than 0.01) than groups II (12%) and I (5%). Group III had a significantly higher frequency of nervous problems (61%) than the other groups, and 8% of group III had been in-patients at a clinic for treatment of alcoholics.