Profiling for Alcohol Addiction

Abstract

Introduction 4.4% of the global burden of diseases are due to alcohol consumption. Ethanol addiction is caused by multiple factors like personal and environmental vulnerability. Objectives To analyze the provenience, the educational level, the most frequent personality trades and the genetic load for psychiatric disorders in a sample of subjects with ethanol addiction. Aims To demonstrate that a specific profile for a person with high risk for ethanol addiction exists. Methods A sample of 46 subjects, admitted between November 2013 and January 2014 in Timisoara's Psychiatric Clinic with Ethanol Addiction was analyzed. We evaluated the following: provenience, personality trades, genetic load for psychiatric disorders and occupational status. Personality trades were evaluated using the Personality Assessment Schedule – ICD-10 version. Results Most of the subjects were males (86.95%), unemployed (39.13%), have finished high school (47.82%) and had one of the parents with chronic consumption of ethanol. The sample was equally distributed between urban and rural. The most frequent personality trades were: the need to be liked and accepted, sensitivity to critique and rejection; intrapsychic tension and anxiety; the sense of inferiority, submission, excessive docility and a lack of assuming responsibility. Conclusions The profile of a person predisposed for alcohol addiction is: an unemployed male, without a higher education, with a chronic ethanol consumer father, and with certain personality trades like the need to be liked and accepted, sensitivity to critique and rejection; intrapsychic tension and anxiety; the sense of inferiority, submission, excessive docility and a lack of assuming responsibility.