Comorbid phobic disorders do not influence outcome of alcohol dependence treatment. Results of a naturalistic follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE
Despite claims that comorbid anxiety disorders tend to lead to a poor outcome in the treatment of alcohol dependence, the few studies on this topic show conflicting results.


OBJECTIVE
To test whether the outcome of treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent patients with a comorbid phobic disorder is worse than that of similar patients without a comorbid phobic disorder.


METHODS
The probabilities of starting to drink again and of relapsing into regular heavy drinking in (i) a group of 81 alcohol-dependent patients with comorbid social phobia or agoraphobia were compared with those in (ii) a group of 88 alcohol-dependent patients without anxiety disorders in a naturalistic follow-up using Cox regression analysis.


RESULTS
Adjusted for initial group differences, the hazard ratio for the association of phobic disorders with resumption of drinking was 1.05 (95% CI, 0.85-1.30, P = 0.66) and the adjusted hazard ratio for the association of phobic disorders with a relapse into regular heavy drinking was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.78-1.33, P = 0.89).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study do not confirm the idea that alcohol-dependent patients who have undergone alcohol-dependence treatment are at greater risk of a relapse if they have a comorbid anxiety disorder. No differences were found in abstinence duration or time to relapse into regular heavy drinking between patients with and without comorbid phobic disorders.
Marquenie
Loes A
LA
Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, VU-University MedicalCentre, GGZ Buitenamstel, The Netherlands. LMarquenie@ggzba.nl
Schadé
Annemiek
A
Van Balkom
Anton J L M
AJ
Koeter
Maarten
M
Frenken
Sipke
S
van den Brink
Wim
W
van Dyck
Richard
R
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D015995:Prevalence; D012008:Recurrence; D013695:Temperance