Differentiating male and female alcoholics from psychiatric outpatients: the MacAndrew and Rosenberg Alcoholism Scales.

The concurrent validity of the MacAndrew and Rosenberg alcoholism scales was investigated in an age matched sample of 190 male and 150 female patients. Scores obtained by male and female alcoholics on the MacAndrew scale were significantly higher than those obtained by psychiatric patients. Although females score lower on the MacAndrew scale than males, the scale proved equally effective with both sexes. Using the standard MacAndrew cutting score of greater than 23, 80% of the male and 81% of female patients were correctly classified as either an alcoholic or a psychiatric patient. Scores on the Rosenberg composite index were not found to significantly discriminate between alcoholic and psychiatric patients.