Addictive behaviors among hospitalized psychiatric patients

A survey was conducted to assess the extent of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, obesity, and smoking among patients hospitalized on other than substance abuse treatment wards of a large psychiatric hospital. The results revealed extensive addictive behavior problems in the sample with nearly 90% of the patients having at least one of the problems. Prevalence rates for smoking and alcohol abuse substantially exceeded, and for obesity was equivalent to, the prevalence of these behaviors in the general population. Drug abuse was the least frequent problem and comparisons to the general population could not be made. Another major finding was that a relatively small proportion of patients was receiving any treatment for their addictive problems that was likely to be effective. For the most part, it seemed that patients receiving treatment were cases in which the addictive problem caused a serious immediate danger to the patient or others on the ward or seriously disrupted the ward routine.