Bipolar affective disorder and alcoholism.

The author reports that the percentage of manic-depressive patients admitted to an acute care psychiatric service who were also diagnosed as alcoholic was not significantly different from the rate of alcoholism for the entire psychiatry service. Demographic factors, symptoms, and course of the affective illness did not distinguish alcoholic from nonalcoholic patients. The data do not support a causal relationship between the two illnesses, both of which might be considered "primary" in an individual patient.