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Serum alcohol dehydrogenase levels in patients with mental disorders.

Kravos M, Malesic I, Levanic S

Psychiatric Hospital Ormoz, Ptujska cesta 33, SI-2270 Ormoz, Slovenia. mk4@siol.net

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) was assessed in 81 patients admitted to hospital for treatment for alcohol dependence with or without liver cirrhosis, 20 patients with bipolar disorder treated with lithium carbonate and 41 patients with various mental disorders treated with psychopharmacologic agents. Testing the hypothesis of the arithmetic mean showed that in alcohol dependents the arithmetic mean of ADH activity (12.19 nkat/l+/-5.61) differs significantly from that in healthy subjects (4.45 nkat/l+/-2.31) and in the group with ethanol poisoning (6.24 nkat/l+/-3.65) there is none. In the group with bipolar disorder, treated with lithium (7.39 nkat/l+/-3.11) and, in the group of patients treated with psychiatric drugs because of various mental disorders (7.79 nkat/l+/-8.51), the differences are statistically significant. In our opinion, assessing ADH activity in the sera of alcohol dependents could be an additional marker advantageous to the diagnostics, course and monitoring of therapy in such patients. In the groups of patients with mental disorders treated with psychotropic drugs, the increased ADH activity was found to be a more sensitive marker for the detection of drug hepatotoxicity.

Published 3 October 2005 in Clin Chim Acta, 361(1): 86-94.
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