Alcohol Dependence And Co-Morbidity

A person drinking for a long period of time may loose control over the use of alcohol-in initiating or limiting the amount or terminating the use .By the time one develops a sense of compulsion to drink; he usually requires a higher amount to have the desired effect. If he tries to delay or decrease the amount or quit drinking, he has to suffer difficulties of withdrawal like restlessness, palpitation, tremor or seizure or even more life threatening conditions.Consequently, he continues to drink despite of knowing the adverse effects of drinking. Any person with three or more of the features sometimes in the past year has a serious problem-alcohol dependence syndrome, a major cause of Anxiety in population

Not all alcohols users develop alcohol related problems. About one third suffer from it. About 10% males and 5-10% female suffers from it. In a study done in the department of psychiatry in BPKIHS: 80% of alcohol dependence cases have various psychiatric disorders; 62% had axis-I and 51% had axis-II diagnosis. About 20 % of cases showed syndromal depression and 22% anxiety disorders whereas 39% had psychotic illness including delirium tremens. About 75% of cases use other substances as well mainly nicotine, followed by opiods.

When a person has dependence it becomes a serious problem. By the time they seek help from a doctor, they usually already have one or the other complications-physical or even psychiatric.

Mental illness is most common among alcoholics than among general population. Some psychiatric disorder like schizophrenia,
Anxiety disorder and anti-social personality are found to increase the risk factors of alcohol users. So psychiatric co-morbidity is high in alcohol dependence syndrome (about 78%).

Many of us ignore by considering it to be a habit or a lack of will power or weakness on a part of the patient or in reaction to stressful life events. In fact alcohol dependence is a disease entity which itself should be treated properly. And it also signals out many of the possible co-morbidities behind the face of dependence which should also be managed for the betterment.
The identification and management of both physical and psychiatric co-morbidity is a must for the holistic management of alcohol dependence syndrome. So if a person has developed dependence. One should not take it lightly.

Ask Yourself:
One should ask the following questions to self or drinker:

Two or more positive answers suggest alcohol problems. And if there is a chance of dependence, take it seriously and consult the concern psychiatrist.