Main Article Content

Role Of Life Events And Personality In Alcohol Dependent Individuals – A Study


Preeti Gudlavallety
Sumaiya Saleem Ahmed
Pragathi Gollepally

Abstract

Introduction: Over 2 billion people worldwide, and 14.6% of India’s population consumes alcohol, 18.5% of whom are  dependent. 95% of alcohol users are males, with 74% falling in the age bracket of 18-49 years. Stressful life events and  personality may act as important determinants in persistence of alcohol use, hence influencing long term treatment of  alcohol dependent individuals. This study focuses on these aspects to fill in the dearth of research on this concept over  the past decade.


Methodology: A case control study was done at a tertiary care hospital with 80 literate male participants; 40 cases  meeting the criteria for alcohol dependence as per ICD 10, and 40 age matched controls with no history of alcohol  consumption. Participants were screened with General Health Questionnaire-12 to exclude other illnesses. All  participants were administered sociodemographic proformas, Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale, Eysenck  Personality Questionnaire - Revised.


Results: Sociodemographic profiles of cases and controls were similar. Mean  number of life events and undesirable life events were higher among cases, and mean number of desirable life events  were higher among controls. Cases displayed higher scores in the domains of psychoticism, neuroticism and  extraversion.


Conclusion: Alcohol dependent individuals differ significantly from life time abstinent individuals on personality variables and had experienced more subjective distress. A holistic approach addressing coping strategies,  personality development, and education about substance use among adolescents would aid in individual and social well  being.


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2812-4898
print ISSN: 2812-488X