BJP RCPsych Publications
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mullan, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Murray, R. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mullan, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Murray, R. M.

The British Journal of Psychiatry 148: 435-441 (1986)
© 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

The relationship between alcoholism and neurosis: evidence from a twin study

MJ Mullan, HM Gurling, BE Oppenheim and RM Murray

The twin register of the Maudsley Hospital was used to select a series of monozygotic (MZ) and same-sexed dizygotic (DZ) twins who had been given an ICD8 diagnosis related to alcoholism. They and their co-twins were traced. Medical and drinking histories were compiled (from records and by interview) for 56 twin-pairs, to permit current and retrospective diagnosis of any neurotic disorders. RDC diagnoses of panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobias were more common in the alcoholic probands and the co-twins who were also alcoholics than in the normal-drinking co-twins. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) were completed by 54 individuals. Neuroticism scores were significantly higher for both male and female alcoholics than for their normal-drinking co-twins; and intra-pair differences in neuroticism were significantly correlated with intra- pair differences in severity of dependence. These results suggest that both clinically diagnosed neurotic illness and high neuroticism scores are more often a consequence than a cause of alcoholism.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Arch Gen PsychiatryHome page
C. A. Prescott, S. H. Aggen, and K. S. Kendler
Sex-Specific Genetic Influences on the Comorbidity of Alcoholism and Major Depression in a Population-Based Sample of US Twins
Arch Gen Psychiatry, August 1, 2000; 57(8): 803 - 811.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists.