Childhood trauma and depression in alcoholics: relationship to hostility

Objective: To examine for a relationship between childhood trauma and depression in alcoholics. Methods: Euthymic depressed alcoholics (N = 23) were compared with never depressed alcoholics (N = 20) for their scores on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Subjects also completed the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ). Results: Euthymic depressed alcoholics had significantly higher scores on the CTQ for childhood emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional neglect. They also had significantly: higher hostility scores on the HDHQ. There were significant correlations between adult hostility scores and CTQ scores for childhood emotional neglect, physical neglect, sexual abuse and total childhood trauma. Conclusion: A history of childhood trauma was correlated with adult depression in male alcoholics: a hostile personality dimension might be a mediating variable. Limitation: Subjects were queried on their memories bf childhood traumas. Prospective studies are needed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.