A comparison of the beliefs of Indian alcohol-dependent patients and their close family members on their reasons for relapse.

Abstract

To study and compare the perspectives of relapsed alcohol-dependent patients and their family members regarding relapse precipitants. Observational, cross-sectional survey. An addiction centre in northern India. Thirty consecutive male patients attending the centre with relapse of alcohol dependence following previous inpatient treatment, and their respective family members. Relapse precipitants, as generated by a 25-item, three-factor, self-report inventory eliciting the subjects' beliefs about events or circumstances leading to relapse. Both the patients and their families listed items related to 'reduced cognitive vigilance' as the most common relapse precipitants. Reasons pertaining to external situations and euphoric states as well as unpleasant mood states were also frequently reported by them. The rank order correlation between the items by patients and their families was positive and statistically significant (r = 0.80, p < 0.001). Individual item-wise comparison by chi-squared test yielded statistically significant difference in only one of 25 items. There was a high degree of concordance between the patients and their family members regarding beliefs about precipitants of alcoholic relapse.