Alcohol consumption associated with other psychiatric disorders in outpatient psychiatric comorbidity is a common, yet often underdiagnosed and undertreated, resulting in a worse prognosis of both diseases.

To evaluate the prevalence of alcohol consumption in psychiatric outpatient consultations and compared to drug addiction consultations.

A total of 25 outpatient psychiatrists of Extremadura and 10 doctors of substance abuse centers of Extremadura (CEDEX) participated in the study. They were included in the study a total of 373 patients, 244 who were in treatment at mental health center and 129 as a center of drugs.

The mean age of patients in psychiatric consultations was 50.05 years and 42.60 years of CEDEX. The percentage of women was 54% of cases in psychiatric consultations and 18.6% in the CEDEX. Diagnoses included in psychiatric consultations were: anxiety disorders (17.2%), depressive disorders (46.3%); personality disorders (7.8%); mild mental retardation (2.5%); psychotic disorders (12.3%); dementia (2.5%); bipolar disorder (6.1%); and ADHD (1.2%). In the consultations of drugs they were: 45.4% alcohol dependent; 15.7% to cannabis; 13.3% cocaine; 10.9% heroin; 8.1% more heroin to cocaine; and 6.6% to other addictions. A total of 18.9% of patients in psychiatric consultations had a score of 2 or more in the CAGE and 62.8% of the CEDEX.

We found nearly a fifth of the patients attending psychiatric outpatient clinics which have a hazardous drinking, harmful or alcohol dependence, for almost two thirds of drug queries.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.