Personality Profile of Alcohol Dependents and Impact of Longer Duration of Dependence on Personality

Abstract

Alcoholic beverages have been used in human societies since the beginning of recorded history. The patterns of alcohol intake around the world are constantly evolving, and alcohol is omnipresent today. Research has contributed substantially to our understanding of the relation of drinking to specific disorders, and has shown that the relation between alcohol consumption and health outcomes is complex and multidimensional. Alcohol dependence has immense costs as it concerns to societies, work place, families and individuals. The problem of alcohol addiction does not only collapse the addicts but their dependents and relatives also have to suffer the consequences of this problem. It is the leading cause of lost productivity resulting from missed workdays as well as home and industrial accidents. As such there is no alcoholic’s personality/personality pattern, but it is found that there are some personality adaptations due to drinking. Alcohol dependence is found to have high physical, psychological and psychiatric co-morbidity and can also lead to some of the psychiatric problems. The objective of the present study was to ascertain the personality traits of alcohol dependents and to compare with normal sample. It was also intended to identify the possible alteration of personality due to prolonged use of alcohol by using CAQ.In total, 75 subjects were selected; out of whom, 55 were alcohol dependents (with 1-3yrs of duration, 3-5yrs of duration and more than 5yrs of duration) and 20 were normal subjects (used as control group).Results indicates that alcohol dependents differ significantly from normal subjects with respect to some of the personality variables and vary significantly on some of the personality traits due to longer duration of alcohol dependence.