Age and educational factors in the formation and clinical dynamics of alcohol dependence and neurotic disorders

The relevance of the study is due to the high prevalence of alcohol dependence and anxiety-depressive disorders, the high level of their comorbidity, the need to personalize therapeutic interventions, taking into account age and educational factors. Objective: analysis of age characteristics and professional and educational competence in the formation of alcohol dependence and neurotic disorders. Material and Methods: analysis of 651 case histories (n=382 - alcohol dependence, n=269 - neurotic disorders) of patients who sought medical help in 2017-2019 was carried out. Results. Patients under the age of 35 with higher education accounted for 9.9% of requests for narcological help and 14.5% of requests for psychiatric help. The role of age and educational factors in the formation and clinical dynamics of the disorder is more pronounced in alcohol dependence than in neurotic disorders. Young highly educated patients with alcohol dependence differed from patients with secondary education: a high proportion of females, a decrease in the influence of hereditary burden, the specificity of the circumstances of the debut of the disease (the beginning of problematic alcoholization in the company of fellow students at the place of study, by common interests, alone), the longer period of formation of the withdrawal syndrome, the leading symptomatology of the clinical picture of the disease (increased severity of the ideational component of the withdrawal syndrome, anxiety, depression and emotional lability in the structure of the affective component, low severity of the behavioral component and dysphoria in the structure of the affective component), a high prevalence of comorbid anxiety-depressive symptoms. Conclusion. Personalization of psychopharmaco- and psychotherapeutic interventions should be carried out taking into account the age and educational status of patients, which is more relevant for alcohol dependence than for neurotic disorders.