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Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) have long been associated with both trauma history and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Several experts have suggested that increased alcohol use after trauma represents self-medication for post-traumatic distress. To eliminate bias resulting from the selection of subjects whose preexisting characteristics predispose them to both trauma exposure and alcohol use, researchers examined data on 10 disasters, where risk of exposure is random and unrelated to subject characteristics (n=811 survivors).
The investigators gathered information on diagnoses before and after the disaster (index, 1–6 months postdisaster; follow-up, 1–3 years) through carefully structured interviews. Of 697 survivors with follow-up data,…