Quality of life, sleep, mood and alcohol consumption: a complex interaction

Abstract

Socio-demographic information was collected from 52 (45 men, seven women) currently drinking moderately dependent alcohol misusers attending an outpatient clinic in South London for medical assessment and treatment. Assessments at baseline and 12-week follow-up included: (i) Severity of Alcohol Dependence (SADQ) (baseline only), (ii) Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); (iii) Nottingham Health Profile sleep subscale (NHP) and (iv) the EuroQoL (EQ-5D). The main outcome measure was drinking at a "sensible level" at 12-week follow-up as recommended by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. There were significant interactions between sleeping badly, lying awake at night and HADS depression scores. The Health-related Quality of Life (HrQoL) of this group was poor compared to general population norms. Lower EQ-5D index scores were associated with poorer educational attainment and lower EQ-5D Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) patient ratings with greater baseline alcohol consumption. Clinician ratings on the EQ-5D VAS were consistently lower than the patient ratings. The correlations between patient self-assessment and clinician ratings (EQ-5D VAS) were not significant. The forty-seven subjects (90%) who were successfully followed-up showed a significant reduction in the total amount of alcohol consumed. Ten (21%) subjects returned to sensible drinking levels at 12 weeks but there was not a corresponding improvement in HrQoL, sleep, or affective status scores or biochemical measures in these subjects.

Alcohol Treatment Effects on Secondary Nondrinking Outcomes and Quality of Life: The COMBINE Study

“…Foster et al (1998a) found no association between time to relapse and secondary outcomes. In a subsequent study, Foster et al (2002) found change in alcohol consumption but no corresponding improvement in nondrinking areas of functioning. Also, Morgan et al (2003) found that substance use during treatment was not related to end-of-treatment quality of life.…”

Quality of life among hazardous and harmful drinkers: EQ-5D over a 1-year follow-up period

“…In cross-sectional studies, alcohol treatment populations have demonstrated poorer HRQoL compared to general population norms [16,17]. Prospective cohort studies have followed up treatment populations for up to 18 months, yet none have demonstrated a significant change in EQ-5D, despite some showing substantial improvements in alcohol consumption and other outcomes [10,[18][19][20][21]. However, these studies may have been hampered by small sample sizes (n = 6-617).…”

Impact of Addiction Severity and Psychiatric Comorbidity on the Quality of Life of Alcohol-, Drug- and Dual-Dependent Persons in Residential Treatment

“…The number of studies that have investigated the relationship between the use of drugs other than alcohol and QoL is smaller and, in general, those studies are more recent [17,21,22,23]. Overall, the QoL of substance-dependent persons is found to be poor compared to that of the general population [12,24,25] and is most comparable to the QoL of individuals with other psychiatric illnesses (e.g. schizophrenia) [26,27].…”