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Psychiatric morbidity in spouses of patients with alcohol related disorders
Aruna Dandu1, S Bharathi2, Shankar Reddy Dudala3
1Associate Professor, Sri Venkateswara Medical College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Context:
Alcohol dependence is on rise world over, especially in developing countries such as India. According to the World Health Organization, about 30% of Indians consume alcohol, out of which 4%-13% are daily consumers and up to 50% of them, fall under the category of hazardous drinking. Another worrying trend from India is that the average age of initiation of alcohol use has reduced from 28 years during the 1980s to 17 years in 2007. In India, alcohol abuse also amounts to huge annual losses due to alcohol-related problems in workplaces. This was a cross-sectional, noninterventional study which was carried out at the Department of Psychiatry, Sri Venkateswara Ramnaraian Ruia Government General Hospital (SVRRGGH), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and nature of psychiatric morbidity in spouses of patients with alcohol-related disorders (ARDs).
Methods:
Study design - Hospital-based cross-sectional study. Study setting - Psychiatry Department of SVRRGGH, Sri Venkateswara Medical College, Tirupati. Study period - October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015. Study units - the spouses of adult patients attending the Department of Psychiatry, with a diagnosis of ARDs. After the ethical clearance from the Institutional Ethical Committee, the spouses of adult patients attending the Department of Psychiatry with a diagnosis of ARDs according to the International Classification of Diseases-10 classification of mental and behavioral disorders constitute the population for the investigation. After obtaining written informed consent from each of the concerned subjects, demographic details and history of psychiatric illness were noted as per the structured pro forma.
Results:
The age of the alcohol-dependent men and spouses of men with ADS ranged from 23 to 67 years (mean ± standard deviation [SD] 41.24 ± 10.101) and 21-60 years (mean ± SD 35.04 ± 8.98), respectively. Among the study population, 36.6% of alcohol-dependent men were in the age group of 31-40 years and 43.6% of wives were in between 31 and 40 years.
Conclusion:
The findings of association of duration of alcohol abuse by husband, marital life satisfaction, poor family support, low socioeconomic status with psychological morbidities in spouses of men of alcohol related disorder are in agreement with earlier studies. But community studies with adequate sample size are required to estimate the effect of these key determinants.
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