Abstract

Introduction: Alcoholic beverages are a routine part of the social landscape for many in today’s social circles, leading to increasing prevalence of alcohol use disorder. Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are associated with wide array of medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Personality disorder and sexual dysfunction are more prevalent as compared to general population. Furthermore, due to chronic relapsing nature of AUDs quality of life is also found to be impaired. Aim and Objectives: To explore and compare various parameters like sociodemographic factors, psychiatric co-morbidities including personality profile, sexual functioning and quality of life in patients of alcohol use disorder. Methodology: This was open label cross sectional study conducted in an out-patient department at tertiary care teaching hospital at rural area in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. 200 alcohol use disorder patients were selected by simple random sampling after careful screening for inclusion and exclusion criteria. General description, demographic data and psychiatric history and examination were recorded in a semi-structured proforma. Appropriate scales were administered for socioeconomic status, personality disorder, sexual dysfunction and quality of life. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS for windows with significance at p < 0.05. Result: Majority of the sample population with AUD constituted middle- aged males with most common pattern of alcohol consumption being dependence and hazardous use. Psychiatric co-morbidities co-existed in 45.5% of AUD patients. Most common sexual dysfunction reported were problems in desire and erectile dysfunction/vaginal lubrication. The mean scores on WHOQOL-BREF scale were comparable on all domains. Conclusion: The current study throws light in estimating public health consequences of alcohol use in terms of psychiatric co-morbidity, sexual dysfunction and resulting influence on patient’s QoL.

Description

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