Abstract
The histories of 1,694 university student psychiatric clinic patients evaluated during 17 consecutive years starting in 1972 were examined for the associations between cocaine use and alcohol abuse, marijuana use and affective disorders, and for gender related differences in those characteristics. All four characteristics/disorders were common for both sexes. Alcohol abuse and marijuana use were more likely for cocaine users than for cocaine abstainers, but those associations were not gender related. Affective disorders were present for 73.4% of all women and 64.7% of all men, but affective disorder rates among cocaine abstainers and users did not differ significantly. Men were more likely than women to give histories of cocaine use and of alcohol abuse while more women reported affective disorders. Those gender related differences were not large but were statistically significant. The findings emphasize the clinical need to complete thorough psychiatric evaluations for all cocaine (and probably other substances) users including systematic examinations for affective disorders, alcohol abuse, and other substances uses for both women and men patients.