Influence of alcohol abuse of the father on the intensity of clinical picture of posttraumatic stress disorder.

The subject of the study is the influence of alcohol abusing father on the clinical picture of PTSD patient. The father plays an important identification role in the psychological development of his son. Therefore it is to be expected that an alcohol abusing father will become a (negative) role model for his son and that he will also later on in stressful situations try to reduce the anxiety and depression by consuming larger quantities of alcoholic drinks. The aim of the study is to find out whether there are differences in PTSD clinical picture in patients whose fathers abused alcohol and in those whose fathers did not have such problem. The participating patients were from the Psychiatric hospital "Sveti Ivan". Mississippi and Watson scales were applied, as well as a questionnaire named "Early traumas" from which the variable "alcohol abuse of the father" was selected. The analysis shows that the participants who in their family histories had fathers who abused alcohol developed a milder clinical picture of PTSD, i.e. they reactions to the stress later on were less sensitive compared to the control group of participants whose fathers did not abuse alcohol and whose clinical pictures of the disorder were more severe.