Prevalence of affective disorder in a sample of young men

To evaluate the prevalence of depression among young men and the relationship between affective disturbances and drug- or alcohol-use patterns, the author mailed a questionnaire to male students and nonacademic staff, aged 21-25 years, at the University of California, San Diego. Of the 964 men responding, 173 (18%) reported a history of depression, including 69 (7%) whose depressions were serious enough to result in a major life upset. The 318 respondents with some alcohol- or drug- related life impairment (33%) were unevenly distributed among the three depressive history groups, with 44% to 48% of those with depressions also reporting substance problems while the same was true for only 30% of the depression-free men. The author advises clinicians to consider the possibility that a depressive disturbance in young populations may occur in relation to substance intake.