Drinking patterns, psychological distress and quality of life in a Norwegian general population-based sample E. F. Mathiesen • S. Nome • M. Eisemann • J. Richter Accepted: 27 November 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to investigate possible relationships between drinking patterns, psycho- logical distress and quality of life (QoL) in a general population-based sample in Norway. Methods A random sample of 4,000 Norwegian citizens, aged 18 to 79, was drawn from the National Register held by Statistics Norway. Results Males consumed significantly more alcohol and reported more drinking-related problems with more nega- tive consequences, compared to females. Psychological distress increased, and all QoL domain scores decreased with increasing alcohol consumption within the group drinking alcohol at all. The excessive drinkers demon- strated the highest level of psychological distress and lowest QoL in the psychological, social relationships and environment domains. Non-drinkers reported to have poorest QoL in the physical health domain, whereas light and moderate drinkers demonstrated lowest psychological distress and best QoL. Psychological distress demonstrated substantial more importance for QoL than socio-demo- graphic variables, alcohol consumption, alcohol depen- dency and negative consequences of alcohol use did. Conclusion The findings indicate the need for a focus on psychological distress and its negative impact upon all QoL domains. Attention should also be paid to excessive drinkers who have poor QoL (psychological, social rela- tionships and environment domains) and a high level of psychological distress. In addition, non-drinkers reported poor physical health. Further research is needed concerning the relation between alcohol consumption, psychological distress and QoL both in general population studies and in more specific samples. Keywords Alcohol Á The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) Á Quality of life Á QoL Á WHOQOL-BREF Á General health questionnaire Á GHQ-20 Á Psychological distress Introduction The Norwegian alcohol policies are reported to be the most restricted in Europe [1] due to a strict legislation con- cerning alcohol, including high taxes on alcoholic bever- ages, alcohol monopoly, restrictions in number of licences to sell alcohol in restaurants, prohibition to advertise alcohol and age limits for buying and time limits for selling alcohol [2]. Nevertheless, in the last decade, the average alcohol consumption in Norway increased from 5.3 (1997) to 6.6 litres pure alcohol in 2007 [3]. The relationship between alcohol consumption and health outcome is complex and multidimensional. Thus, alcohol has been reported being causally related to more than 60 different medical conditions [4]: for example, E. F. Mathiesen (&) Department of Nursing, Bergen University College, Bergen, Norway e-mail: efm@online.no E. F. Mathiesen Á S. Nome Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway M. Eisemann Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway J. Richter Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Eastern and Southern Norway, Oslo, Norway 123 Qual Life Res DOI 10.1007/s11136-011-0080-8