Abstract
BackgroundPatients diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) present an increased risk for experiencing severe internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Involvement in twelve-step based treatment programs, such as the Minnesota Model (MM), can contribute to improvement of an individual’s psychopathological symptom profile. The present study’s main objective was to examine profiles and change trajectories of psychopathological symptoms of AUD subgroups during an eight-week long period of MM treatment attendance. MethodInpatients with AUD (N = 303) who attended MM treatment programs participated in the present study. Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) was used to evaluate the psychopathological symptom change trajectories assessed by using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Multiple comparisons and multinomial logistic regression were performed to validate the subgroups. ResultsThree subgroups were identified: low severity (48.5%), moderate severity (35.2%), and high severity (16.2%) symptomatic subgroups. The moderate severity class demonstrated the largest effect in terms of symptoms decrease. Higher severity classes showed significantly higher rates of harmful alcohol drinking and drinking motives. ConclusionsThe present study identified three severity-based subgroups which indicate that psychopathology sits on a spectrum of severity among AUD patients. The findings highlight the associations between AUD and internalizing symptoms, negative reinforcement drinking motives, and the symptomatic improvement that can occur among those participating in MM treatment programs.
Highlights
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic problem causing significant psychological, physical, interpersonal, and social burden among alcohol users and their environment
The study focused on the Minnesota Model (MM) treatment program which was primarily designed for patients with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) or gambling pro blems
The treatment was in terrupted because of alcohol consumption during the program, while other participants reported about treatment-based reasons nontreatment-based reasons, or other or undefined reasons for treatment inter ruption
Summary
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic problem causing significant psychological, physical, interpersonal, and social burden among alcohol users and their environment. The allostatic model assumes that during the progression from early stages (e.g., preoccupation with alcohol use, frequent intoxication) to the more se vere, compulsive stage of AUD, there is a shift in the motivational background of alcohol use from positive reinforcement (i.e., drinking to Addictive Behaviors Reports 12 (2020) 100302 facilitate positive emotions and hedonic states) to negative reinforce ment (i.e., drinking to alleviate negative affective states related to withdrawal), and function of negative affectivity becomes central due to adverse modifications in the reciprocal emotion-regulation and re ward-regulation systems (Koob, 2013; Le Moal & Koob, 2007) Another possible form of comorbidity is alcohol-induced mental disorders, such as mood, anxiety, bipolar and psychotic disorders, where psycho pathological symptoms last for 1–6 months following excessive use of alcohol (Saunders, 2017). The findings highlight the associations between AUD and internalizing symptoms, negative reinforcement drinking motives, and the symptomatic improvement that can occur among those participating in MM treatment programs
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