Quality of life, depression and anxiety in alcohol dependence

Quality of life is recognised increasingly as an important component in the evaluation of disease processes. Comorbid psychiatric diagnoses accompanying alcohol addiction, especially severe cases of anxiety or depression, may have a negative impact on quality of life. This study focused on the impact of severity of anxiety and depression on quality of life of 150 alcohol-dependent patients treated in hospital.

Consecutive patients were evaluated using relevant quality of life scales at the study's onset and 3 and 6 weeks after the complete disappearance of withdrawal symptoms. Patients were classified into three groups: patients with alcohol dependence only, patients with depression and patients with anxiety.

The level of anxiety and depression decreased from the initial evaluation to week 3 in patients with a high level of anxiety and depression, whereas the level of anxiety increased in the alcohol only-dependent patients. Initial evaluation conducted using the quality of life scales indicated significant differences between the three patient groups: physical health (F = 7.92, p = 0.001); psychological (F = 32.21, p = 0.001); social relationship (F = 3.45, p = 0.03); and environment (F = 7.79, p = 0.001). At weeks 3 and 6, quality of life for physical health, psychological and environment areas differed significantly between patient groups, but social relationships did not. At weeks 3 and 6, quality of life was lowest in patients with depression and highest in alcohol only-dependent patients with a low severity of depression or anxiety.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression accompanying alcohol addiction lead to an increase in severity of the problems associated with the addiction and have a negative effect on quality of life. Measurement of quality of life within the scope of treatment programmes would help to identify treatment requirements in addicted patients.