Alcoholism and the forensic-psychiatric patient: a comparative study.

A group of male forensic psychiatric patients was compared to groups of non-forensic psychiatric patients, hospitalized alcoholics and general hospital admissions on a modified version of the self-administered Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test. Results indicated more alcoholic related problems in both psychiatric groups than the general hospital group, but less than for the hospitalized alcoholics. The scores of the two psychiatric groups, however, did not differ significantly. It was concluded that alcoholism was non-additively associated with both criminality and psychiatric disturbance. It was suggested that the degree of alcohol related problems in psychiatric populations warrants careful screening and treatment even when alcoholism is not reflected in the psychiatric diagnosis.