Alcoholics also dependent on cocaine in treatment: do they differ from "pure" alcoholics?

Although individuals who exhibit both alcohol and cocaine dependency are seen increasingly in traditional alcoholism rehabilitation settings, their comparability with "pure" alcoholics is unclear. Sociodemographic, psychological, cognitive, and substance abuse status were, therefore, monitored in a group of alcoholics (n = 64) versus a group of cocaine dependent alcoholics (n = 82) on admission and just prior to discharge from 28-day multimodal treatment settings. At admission, cocaine-dependent alcoholics were younger, more likely to be unmarried, have more extensive substance use histories as well as more frequent prior treatments than "pure" alcoholics. Additionally, members of both groups exhibited abnormalities on psychological indices. Both psychological and cognitive indices revealed significant between-group differences which subsequent analyses found to be a confound of the marked age discrepancy between groups. From admission to discharge, scores on both psychological and cognitive indices declined significantly in both groups. Urine assay data revealed a greater tendency for cocaine-dependent alcoholics to relapse during treatment. While the psychological and cognitive data largely argue for the comparability of groups of patients classified as "pure" alcoholics with those who are dependent on both alcohol and cocaine, the latter group may have more difficulty in achieving abstinence during treatment. The interpretability of behavioral indices gathered only at treatment admission is questioned.