Sub-Clinical Anxiety and the Onset of Alcohol Use Disorders: Longitudinal Associations from the Baltimore ECA Follow-Up, 1981–2004

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the longitudinal relationship between anxiety disorders in general, specific phobia in particular, and subsequent-onset alcohol use disorders in an adult population-based sample. In addition, the authors explore whether the hypothesized associations vary by gender. Approximately 23 years of data from the Baltimore Epidemiological Catchment Area Follow-up (N = 587) allow for the estimation of the development of incident alcohol use disorders in later life among those with anxiety disorders at the time of the baseline interview in 1981. Although baseline specific phobias were common, neither the number of fears nor any specific fear was statistically associated with the onset of alcohol use disorders. Rather, the findings suggested a modest association between adult sub-clinical specific phobia (without substantial distress or interference) and later-onset alcohol use disorders (odds ratio = 3.2). Moreover, the authors found that this association might be stronger for women than for men.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• alcohol
• sub-clinical
• specific phobia
• cohort

Acknowledgments

Data for this project come from grants MH 47447 and T32 MH14592 awarded to Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health; Dr. Bienvenu was supported by MH64543.

Notes

1. The full model for sub-clinical anxiety disorder and alcohol abuse/dependence reported p<.05 is a result of rounding (actual p value=.051). The confidence interval for this model contains 1 and is therefore not significant at p<.05.