PREVALENCE AND PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS OF ALCOHOL USE DISORDER??? A PROSPECTIVE STUDY FROM A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE OF ASSAM, INDIA

Abstract

Pallab Kumar Bhattacharjee1, Daino Basumatary2

BACKGROUND
 Alcohol dependence, also known as alcoholism or alcohol use disorder, is a broad term for any drinking of alcohol that results in many diseases and various psychosocial problems. There are many complications in managing as well as critical treatment in the study area. The number of alcohol use disorder is increasing in Northeast India day by day. This study was conducted with an aim to study the prevalence and psychosocial factors of alcohol use disorder.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Present study was a hospital-based, cross-sectional study from 1st December, 2015 to 30th November, 2016. A mixed research method of both qualitative and quantitative approaches, nonprobability purposive sampling and three different types of standard scales were applied among cases of age 20 and above.
RESULTS
100 alcohol use disorder patients were assessed. Most of the patients were of 20-39 years age group. Majority (96%) of total respondents were male. 48 percent of alcoholic dependence cases were from HSLC and HS standard, 98 percent of alcoholic dependence cases were from Hindu religion. Interestingly, 34 percent respondents were severely alcohol dependent, 48 percent of them suffered from high perceived stress, 66 percent of their families were problematic but the findings of hypotheses i.e., x2= 0.489 and x2= 0.097 depict there is no association between the levels of alcohol dependency and family functioning. It cannot be said ‘higher the level of stress higher the severity of alcohol dependency’.
CONCLUSION
There are many health and social problems which are related to alcohol use disorder. Alcohol use disorder leads to mental illnesses such as problems of stress, depression, aggression, anxiety, alienation, revenge, shock, indifference, frustration and sleeplessness.

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