The British Journal of Psychiatry 151: 389-392 (1987)
© 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Alcohol, other drugs and tobacco use and anxiolytic effectiveness. A comparison of anxious patients and psychiatric nurses
S Tilley
Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries.
Recent studies raise questions regarding use or abuse of alcohol by
phobics, and about compatibility of behaviour therapy and benzodiazepine
use. In this study 40 patients, referred with mainly anxiety-related
problems to a nurse behaviour therapist, and a comparison group of 40
psychiatric nurses completed a self-administered questionnaire assessing
use of alcohol, sedative drugs and tobacco, and their perceived anxiolytic
effectiveness. The paper confirms earlier findings that the patients, in
general, drank less than the general public. They also drank less than the
nurses, but used more sedative drugs and were heavier smokers. Alcohol was
an unreliable anxiolytic. A few patients, including two agoraphobics, drank
heavily and did not enter treatment made conditional on stopping drinking.
Implications for case management are discussed.