Life events in past one year in alcohol-dependent patients presenting with relapse

Stressful life events, social support, and risk for relapse in relapsed harmful alcohol users in South India: a comparative study between psychiatry and gastroenterology patients

Background: Previous studies have identified risk factors for relapse in patients with alcohol use disorders in deaddiction or community settings. There are limited studies comparing the stressful life events, social support, and risk of relapse in relapsed harmful alcohol users between psychiatry and gastroenterology departments.Objective: To compare the stressful life events, social support, and risk of relapse in relapsed harmful alcohol users between psychiatry and gastroenterology departments.Methods: Comparative, cross-sectional study design was used in males with harmful alcohol use as defined by AUDIT and with at least one relapse. Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale, and Alcohol Relapse Risk Scale were used.Results: Severity of alcohol harmful use was significantly higher in psychiatry patients than gastroenterology. Increased number of gastroenterology patients reported "change in their sleeping habits" as an important factor for relapse than psychiatry, which was not significant. Only stimulus-induced vulnerability was significantly increased in psychiatry patients compared to gastroenterology. Social support significantly correlated with the alcohol relapse risk scores in the psychiatry group, while in the gastroenterology, the severity of alcohol harmful use scores significantly correlated with total alcohol relapse risk scores.Conclusions: The individual stressors and the risk for relapse were different between the two groups. There was no difference in social support between the two groups. These findings can have implications for using these factors in relapse prevention strategies by focusing on the factors specifically found in each group. However, these findings have to be studied in a larger community sample.

Depression and alcohol use disorders as precursors to death by suicide

The combined presence of depression with alcohol abuse can increase suicide risk. We used psychological autopsy to evaluate 101 individuals who died by suicide, to understand relationships between stressful life events, alcohol abuse, and depression. As compared to suicidal adults with depression only, individuals meeting criteria for both a depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder tended to be younger and experienced higher rates of stressful life events during the six months prior to death. Alcohol abuse likely influences interpersonal conflict, financial distress, and legal problems. Interventions focusing on managing life problems may help to reduce suicide risk.