Screening for psychiatric comorbidity among female alcoholics: the use of a questionnaire (SCL-90) among women early in their treatment programme.

The use of a questionnaire, Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90), as a screening instrument for psychiatric disorders was studied in 60 women attending their first treatment for alcohol abuse in Stockholm, Sweden. A global SCL-90 index, the General Symptomatic Index (GSI), measuring the total level of recent self-reported psychological distress, showed a high efficacy in distinguishing 'psychiatric cases' from 'non-cases' in the present sample. Psychiatric cases were defined as subjects satisfying the criteria for any current DSM-III-R disorder other than substance abuse. The psychiatric diagnoses were obtained independently by use of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID-I). Psychiatric disorders, especially depression and anxiety disorders, frequently antecede or develop secondary to alcohol abuse among women. The use of structured interviews to diagnose these disorders is, however, time-consuming. Findings from the present study indicate that SCL-90 can be used to detect psychiatric comorbidity among female alcoholics, thus enabling clinicians to be aware of concomitant psychiatric disorders among a subgroup of patients.