Study of Quality of Life in Alcohol Dependent Patients at Siriraj and Sritanya Hospitals

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Objective: 1) To study the quality of life in alcohol dependent patient, 2) to identify factors correlated with the quality of life in alcohol dependent patients, and 3) to study psychiatric comorbidity and its impact on quality of life in alcohol dependent patients.
Method: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study of 100 alcohol dependent subjects who received psychiatric services at Siriraj and Sritanya Hospitals from September 2010 to February 2011. We used three instruments; 1) Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies, Thai version (Th-DIGS), 2) Mini International Neuropsychiatric Structure Interview (M.I.N.I.-Thai version), and 3) Short-Form Thirty Six (SF-36 - Thai version) to assess psychiatric diagnosis and quality of life measurement by trained interviewers. Data analysis used mean, SD, unpaired t-test , one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation
Result: The quality of life in alcohol dependent patients was lower than the general Thai population. The mean quality of life is maximum in the general health domain (mean score 49.95) and minimum in the physical functioning domain (mean score 25.35). Associated factors for high quality of life in alcohol dependent patients were good family relationship, good physical health, good financial status, being younger, fewer children, less alcohol consumption per day, no psychiatric comorbidity such as major depressive episode, dysthymia, hypomanic episode, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, current psychotic disorder and suicidality. The comorbidity psychiatric disorder rate was 69%. The top five disorder symptoms were lifetime psychotic disorder, major depressive episode, current psychotic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, dysthymia and suicidality at 25, 24, 17, 11, 9 and 9 % respectively.
Conclusion: Alcohol dependent patients had lower quality of life than the general Thai population in all SF-36 domains. Associated factors in quality of life of alcohol dependent patients were; family relationship, physical health, financial status, age, number of children, amount of alcohol consumed per day and some psychiatric comorbidities. Lower level of these factors led to poor prognosis in alcohol dependent patients’ treatment outcome.