Psychiatric Morbidity among Spouses of Men with Alcohol Dependence

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To assess the common mental disorders among spouses of men with alcohol dependence and to compare common mental disorders among spouses of alcoholics and nonalcoholics. Study design: This was a cross-sectional controlled study. We evaluated 50 cases (including the indoor and outdoor patients) whose husbands were diagnosed as having alcohol dependence and 50 controls whose husbands had no alcohol dependence but some other illness, admitted to our rural medical college using the global mental health assessment tool-primary care (GMHAT-PC) version including the sociodemographic profile sheet and history of patient's illness. Results: Anxiety (16%) and depression (36%) were higher in wives of alcohol-dependent men. Stress was higher (6%) in cases as compared with controls (4%). When comparing diagnosis and age-wise distribution, depression was higher in cases (28%) as compared with controls (14%) in age group of 31 to 40. There were 23 (46%) out of 50 spouses of men with alcohol dependence syndrome, whose diagnosis by GMHAT-PC came out as no mental illness; still they had some score in the anxiety rating, but this score was not enough for them to be diagnosed under anxiety disorder. Even in controls, anxiety score to a certain extent was present in 26% spouses. The GMHAT-PC self-harm scoring system was used to assess the risk of self-harm. It was found that three (6%) spouses had mild suicidal risk and one (2%) had severe suicidal risk, whereas in controls, it was absent. Conclusion: Alcohol abuse is associated with an increased risk of committing criminal offences. An alcoholic can disrupt the routine family life. The women are primary caregivers in most of these cases. Therefore, understanding mental health status of spouses of alcoholics is of utmost importance. It can help in early detection of psychiatric morbidities and help in early intervention.