Young and old alcoholics: some personality differences.

Ninety-one alcoholic males aged 20-65 completed the MMPI. Their T scores on 10 clinical scales and 3 other indices were correlated with age. Seven of 13 correlations were statistically significant. There was a significant negative correlation between age and psychopathic deviance, paranoia, schizophrenia, and mania, and there was a significant positive correlation between age and hypochondriasis. Goldberg's indices showed that younger alcoholics' profiles resembled those of a sociopathic population as opposed to a psychiatric population and tended toward psychoticism rather than neuroticism. Results can assist practitioners in understanding and planning for a young clientele.