Baseline health status and quality of life after alcohol treatment for women with alcohol dependence

Abstract

Background Research suggests that women with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) experience more severe medical and social consequences from alcohol use compared to men, but little is known about health improvements following alcohol treatment. Methods This study sought to characterize the pre-treatment health status of 138 alcohol dependent women enrolled in 12 sessions of female-specific group or individual outpatient treatment and examine the degree to which alcohol treatment might promote positive quality of life changes. Quality of life was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life measure at baseline and 3 months later at the end of treatment. Results The most common health problems at baseline were: smoking cigarettes (34.1%), hypertension (31.2%), obesity (27.5%), arthritis (21.0%), high cholesterol (17.4%), heart problems (8.7%), and a history of cancer (7.2%). Significant improvements across physical, t(117)=4.67, p<.001, d=.42; psychological, t(117)=7.31, p<.001, d=.62; social, t(117)=3.18, p=.002, d=.28; and environmental, t(117)=2.39, p=.018, d=.17; quality of life domains were seen after treatment. Percent days abstinent during treatment was positively associated with overall health satisfaction and psychological health at the end of treatment. Conclusions Women presenting for outpatient treatment for alcohol use disorders report many comorbid negative health problems. Thus, it is important for both substance use and health care providers to consider the overlap of alcohol use problems and health domains. Furthermore, female-specific cognitive behavioral treatment for alcohol use disorders positively impacted multiple health domains for women, suggesting a potential transdiagnostic intervention to target co-occurring health and substance use problems.

Treatment Interventions for Women With Alcohol Use Disorder

“…A number of RCTs have yielded newly available, evidence-based female-specific treatment protocols for AUD and SUD treatment that are at least equivalent in positive outcomes to evidence-based control treatments. 59 , 60 , 62 , 70 , 74 , 79 Outcomes for secondary (non-AUD) patient problems, such as depression and anxiety, 59 , 60 trauma symptoms, 69 cardiovascular function, 98 health behaviors, drug use, and quality of life 99 , 100 from these female-specific treatments also have been positive. NIAAA’s focus on implementation studies in conjunction with the study of mechanisms of change 101 should accelerate testing the incorporation of female-specific interventions into community settings—not just addiction specialty clinics but also primary care and general mental health settings.…”

Alcoholic Behaviour and Assessment of the Quality of Life of Reproductive Age Women in Eastern Siberia

“…Epstein & B.S. McCrady, [5] showed how a significant improvement in the quality of life has been observed after alcohol treatment, but this is related to alcohol dependence rather than alcohol consumption in general. J.…”

Individual versus group female-specific cognitive behavior therapy for alcohol use disorder

“…In a prior study (Epstein et al, in press) we reported comparable, positive outcomes for a 12-session, individual modality female-specific cognitive behavioral therapy (FS-CBT) protocol tested against a gender-neutral individual CBT condition (Epstein & McCrady, 2009) for women with AUD. During treatment, women in both conditions were highly engaged, satisfied with treatment, reduced their drinking, depression, anxiety, tobacco and other drug use, and improved their interpersonal functioning, self-efficacy, coping skills, and motivation (Bold, Epstein, & McCrady, 2017; Epstein et al, in press). Positive changes were maintained for the 12 months following treatment.…”