Hospital morbidity and alcohol consumption in less severe psychiatric disorder: 7-year outcomes.

BACKGROUND Substance use by people with severe psychiatric morbidity is associated with negative outcomes. AIMS To assess in adults with less severe psychiatric morbidity the relationship between alcohol consumption and subsequent 7-year hospital admissions, and the development and recurrence of alcohol use disorders. METHOD Follow-up data were assembled via a population-based hospital record-linkage system. RESULTS Baseline alcohol use groups were: dependent (n=31), harmful (n=114), moderate (n=621) and abstinent (n=249). The moderate but not the abstinent group had fewer mental health admissions and a longer time to first admission than the harmful and dependent groups. Both the moderate and the abstinent groups had longer times to 'all-cause' admissions than the dependent group. Many of those with alcohol use disorders at baseline relapsed (66%) but few (14%) developed a first-time alcohol use disorder. CONCLUSIONS Overall, moderate alcohol consumption among those with less severe psychiatric morbidity was not associated with more mental health admissions; those with alcohol dependence had poorer health outcomes than the remaining categories.