Assessment of Common Mental Disorders in Patients with Alcohol use Disorder

Abstract

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems like controlling drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol, continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems, urge to drink more to get the same effect and having withdrawal symptoms when discontinued abruptly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are approximately two billion alcoholic beverage consumers and 76.3 million people worldwide with diagnosable alcohol-use disorders. Co-occurrence of alcohol use disorders with common mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, stress and bipolar disorder, is relatively common. Individuals with alcohol-related problems can be more vulnerable to develop mental health disorders and vice versa which is a significant public health concern globally. The purpose of this study was to evaluate AUD as the primary disorder, in which people start drinking alcohol as a social habit and progress to chronic alcoholism, which can lead to the development of common mental disorders (CMD) such as depression, anxiety, and stress. The study was carried in ESIC hospital's inpatient general medicine department in Bengaluru. A self-designed data collection form and validated questionnaires were used to collect data for an educational observational study involving 87 patients. According to the study, 74.7% of 87 AUD patients had minimal anxiety, 72.41% had mild depression, and 59.7% had mild stress. The majority of the AUD population was low-income, illiterate, and self-employed. This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Common Mental Disorders (CMD) in relation to patients' socio-demographics which can aid in the early detection of individuals at risk, design targeted interventions, and the implementation of preventive measures to address the co-occurrence of these disorders eventually leading to improved public health outcomes.