[Effect of war on alcoholism]

To investigate and analyze the effect of the war upon the representation of the hospitalized alcoholics at the Department of Psychiatry at the Clinical Hospital of Mostar. RESPONDENTS AND METHODS: In this retrospective research was analyzed the representation of alcoholism in all the patients hospitalized in the year 1994 and in all the patients hospitalized in the year 1999, by examining the disease history. All the patients were hospitalized at the Department of Psychiatry of the Clinical Hospital of Mostar. The classical medical procedure and the biomedical diagnostics parametry were used to make a diagnosis.

Total number of the hospitalized at the Department of Psychiatry in the war period (year 1994) amounted to 329 patients, out of who 25.5% due to alcoholism. Five years later the number of the patients hospitalized at the Department of Psychiatry amounted to 349, out of whom 28.6% owing to alcoholism, which is an increase in the representation of alcoholics among the total number of treated patients, but not also a statistically significant difference (P > 0.05). The increased number of persons who were treated for alcoholism in the post-war year 1999 can be partly explained by the occurrence of war related psychic disorders, a combination of severe social and material situation and frequent secondary traumatization.

An increase in the number of patients hospitalized owing to alcoholism in the post-war year 1999 (28.6%) as compared to the war year 1994 (25.5%), is shown.