S. Combaluzier / Open Journal of Psychiatry 2 (2012) 317-320 319
Disturbance of
the alcoholic
ehavio u
Alcohol drinking
because of sensation
seeking
Alcohol drinking
because of
psychological
problems
Depressive features Anxious features
Pharmaco-dependency
Schema 1. Model of the intensity of pharmacodependency
among persons with alcohol abusing or dependency disorders.
Alcohol dependent: x2 = 4.8, df = 6, p = 0.565, GFI = 0.961,
CFI = 1, RMSEA = 0; Alcohol abusers: x2 = 6.85, df = 7, p =
0.335, GFI = 0.957, CFI = 0.995, RMSEA = 0.053.
Also we can argue that to differentiate abusers of al-
cohol and dependent persons the intensity of the vari-
ables is more important than their combinations. But if
the differences between alcohol using and dependency
are a matter of intensity how one can explain that the
abusing turns to dependency?
According to our outcomes, the sequence “pharmaco-
dependence”, “drinking alcohol because of psychological
problems”, “depressive features” and “disturbance of the
alcoholic behaviour” is a retroaction that may explain the
shift from a mean score of 0.44 among heavy drinkers in
a score of 48.33 recorded in alcohol-dependent individu-
als (cf. Ta b l e 1 ). Another retroaction can be drawn that
implies “anxious features” and “sensation seeking” that
also can increase the pharmaco-dependence.
4. DISCUSSION
This model needs to be validated against other data with
larger groups or other questionnaires. Therefore, if we
test it with the data of the two groups that we left be-
cause of the initial randomization, the criteria of validity
are still significant.
According to the model, there is a transition from al-
cohol abuse to alcohol dependency, or in other words,
dependency is a form of alcohol abusing that does not
need more variables, or factors, to explain.
If we focus on the relationships between alcoholic be-
haviours and depressive features the feed-back in this
model lets us answer to the question of the primary or
secondary depressive syndromes among alcoholic people.
Depression is primary to disturbance of alcoholic beha-
viours and has direct and indirect (mediated by anxiety
and sensation seeking) to the disturbance of the alcoholic
behaviour; on the other hand, through the mediation of
the drinking because of psychological problems, the de-
pressives features are induced by the alcoholic beha-
viours and appear as secondary to alcohol related prob-
lems. Therefore, the depressive features are not the cen-
tral basis of this model. If we control their intensity by
using the partial correlation method, the correlations im-
plied in this model keep their significance.
The model that can be constructed from our data leads
us to the conclusion that the intensity of pharmaco-depen-
dence depends on the intensity of two main variables:
level of the disturbance of alcohol relationship and con-
sumption of alcohol for sensation seeking. The feed-
back from the “disturbance of the alcohol relationship”
to depressive features (mediated by the consumption of
alcohol because of psychological problems) that involves
the disturbance of the alcoholic behaviour directly and
indirectly contributes to increasing pharmaco-depen-
dence.
But how does alcohol abuse turn to dependence? This
model let us understand the transition from an abusing
drinking (m = 35.65) to a dependent consumption of al-
cohol (n = 70.32) thanks to the indirect incidence of the
“alcohol drinking because of psychological problems” on
the pharmaco-dependence (0.44 among the groups of
alcohol users against 48.3 in the alcohol dependent group)
and the retroaction of pharmaco-dependence on “alcohol
drinking because of psychological problems”.
Finally, the data confirm the incidence of the distur-
bance of the alcoholic behaviour on the alcohol-depen-
dency. If we focus on the persons whose score of alcohol
problems is higher than 24, our model becomes non-
significant. Therefore the size of this sample (n = 21)
does not allow us to get further. Also it would be inter-
esting to look for the critical point where disturbance of
the alcoholic behaviour turns a “normal drinking” into
dependant alcoholism.
Other works especially using specific questionnaires
for each factor should confirm this study. Such a data
collect would let us re-test the validity of this integrative
model which deals with both majors forms of alcoholic
disorder: abusing and dependency.
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