Expectations and motives for alcohol use in a psychiatric outpatient population

The purpose of the study was to assess alcohol expectancies and motives of psychiatric outpatients with and without comorbid current or lifetime substance use disorders. Seventy-five psychiatric outpatients with diagnoses of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders were administered the Alcohol Effect Expectancy Questionnaire-Abridged Version and the Drinking Motives Measure. Results demonstrated that the internal reliabilities for the two scales were comparable with those reported for these measures in the general population. Psychiatric outpatients with a history of comorbid substance use disorders reported greater expectancies and motives for using alcohol than did patients with no such history. In addition patients with comorbid alcohol and drug use disorders, and only comorbid alcohol use disorder, showed significantly greater expectancies and motives for alcohol use than patients with only comorbid drug use disorders and patients with no history of comorbid substance use disorder. We discuss the implications of the findings for role of expectancies and motives in the maintenance and treatment of substance abuse in psychiatric patients.