What Drives People to Drink?

395 patients that were alcohol dependent were given an evaluation. The inventory of rug taking situations (IDTS), Penn alcohol craving scale (PACS), patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), and/or the Beck depression inventory (BDI), were the evaluations given to each patient. The way that the genders were different were evaluated by looking at the negative, positive, and temptations in the situation.

The women resulted in heavier drinking in emotionally negative situations. Women struggle more in this particular area than men do. Women feed off of emotional situations, therefore, their risk factor for heavy drinking increases. A negative emotional situation can be the perfect trigger in order to send the person into a state of mind that craves alcohol. When things become difficult, a person will often turn to things to help them cope and feel better.  Women also outscored the men within the depressive symptoms evaluation. However, men scored higher with temptation-related drinking. Temptation-related drinking can be associated with multiple different things ranging from impulsive behavior to a bipolar disorder.

The implications of this study are significant in learning how to better understand those that are alcohol-dependent. This can also help psychologist and those working with alcohol-dependent patients, in the treatment process for the patient. The more that is understand about a particular problem the better off you are in learning how to overcome these issues. Treating depression should be done earlier than it normally is done within the rehabilitation process.

There were a couple limitations to this particular study. The 50-item IDTS was used to evaluate each patient. A shorter evaluation cuts out some questions that could possibly bring to light some of the weak areas within the study. A longer evaluation would help create a better understanding of each patient. In addition, another limitation was that there was not a formal interview to help diagnose alcoholism or deep depression within the patients.

Abstract

Abulseoud, O. A., Karpyak, V. M., Schneekloth, T., Hall-Flavin, D. K., Loukianova, L. L., Geske, J. R., Biernacka, J. M., Mrazek, D. A. and Frye, M. A. (2013), A Retrospective Study of Gender Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Risk of Relapse in Patients with Alcohol Dependence. The American Journal on Addictions, 22: 437–442. doi: 10.1111/j.1521-0391.2013.12021.x