Treatment Needs of Patients With Severe Alcohol Use Disorders

People with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) have varied needs while they seek treatment. Understanding and focusing on the needs will improve treatment outcomes. The objective of the study is to qualitatively assess the treatment-related needs of patients with AUDs admitted to a tertiary care treatment center.

A semi-structured questionnaire with anchor questions was developed based on a literature review and key informant interviews. All the interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and color-coded manually. Two reviewers reviewed the codes. Themes and subthemes were generated using thematic inductive analysis.

Among 15 patients interviewed, all the patients had severe AUD (100%), were married (100%), were primarily males (86.6%), and more than half below the poverty line (53.4%), with a mean age of 41.1 years (SD = 9.5). Four major themes of treatment needs were identified: (a) individual, (b) family-related, (c) hospital-related, and (d) community-related. Among individual needs-medication-related, psychological, and occupational were prominent. Addressing family conflict and supporting the family are the significant subthemes for family-related needs. The behavior of the treating team, environmental needs, and diverse services were significant hospital-related needs. Awareness, accessibility, availability, and affordability of treatment services were the major community-related needs.

The study highlights diverse needs extending from individual to community among people with AUDs. A holistic treatment model to address these needs will improve the quality of care and treatment outcomes.