PATTERNS OF ALCOHOLISM IN SUBSAMPLES OF HOMELESS MEN

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This project is designed to conduct a systematic controlled study of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders in the St. Louis homeless population. Specifically, 650 homeless men will be sampled from three sources: shelters (N = 250), day centers (N = 150), and street locations (N = 250). These three subgroups of homeless men will be interviewed with the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) to make well-specified DMS-III diagnoses. Diagnoses in the three subgroups will then be compared with each other, and also with the established ECA sample of the same St. Louis inner-city area. Additionally, the homeless population will be examined for rates of personality disorders. Other factors, including family psychiatric history and demographic and social variables, will be examined for their longitudinal relationship to homelessness. In this way, correlates of homelessness in alcoholic men may be determined. Identification of those factors associated with the development and perpetuation of the homeless condition may help direct those serving the homeless and near-homeless populations to assist them in the most valuable and effective manner.