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Bipolar Patients More Likely to Abuse Alcohol and Many Bipolar Substance Abusers Commit Serious Crimes
Findings from two new studies presented at American Psychiatric Association 156th Annual Meeting show prevalence of severe alcohol addiction among bipolar disorder patients and a history of illegal activity/incarceration among bipolar patients abusing substances.
· The average bipolar patient with alcohol dependence consumes alcohol 14 days per month, 11 drinks per day and 152 drinks per month-that's equivalent to two six packs per day!
· The mean score of bipolar patients with alcohol dependence is 16, while a score of just 5 or more indicates alcohol dependence.
· One out of three bipolar patients with substance use disorder have been incarcerated. Out of those incarcerated 70 percent were male with a mean number of 4 months length of incarcerations.
More than half of bipolar patients with substance use disorder have committed serious criminal offenses
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