Psychiatric symptomatology in female family members of alcoholic patients: a descriptive study in Mexico

Abstract

The present paper contains a description of the psychiatric symptomatology of some female family members of an alcoholic patient. The information is the result of a previous study made by the Aid Center for the Alcoholic and his Family (CAAF), to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). For the present work a subsample of women (n=87) was selected. Firstly, we worked out the symptomatological profiles of psychosexual dysfunctions, depression/dysthymia and generalized anxiety to detect the symptoms through which the women in this study more frequently express their emotional discomforts. Subsequently, we delimited two groups of analysis, on the basis of the main diagnostic overlap in this sample: women with psychosexual dysfunctions: 1. with depression/dysthymia –SEX/DEP-(n=21),a and 2. without depression/ dysthymia –SEXnoDEP-(n=28). A comparison was made between these groups to identify the symptoms that reached significant differences. The results obtained are discussed regarding their clinical implications, such as the usefulness of the DIS instrument for clinical and epidemiological research in Mexico.