The Study of Use of Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale, for Craving in Alcohol-dependent Patients: Relationship to Alcoholism Severity

Background: Many clinicians and researchers believe that “craving” an abusable substance is a central phenomenon related to addiction. Craving for alcohol appears to be intimately related to the loss of control over consumption and to compulsive alcohol use.

Aim: To compare the scores of obsessive compulsive drinking scale with visual analogue scale, severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire and addiction severity index.

Materials and methods: Literate patients who met DCR-ICD-10 criteria for alcohol dependence syndrome were taken in the study. They must have been drinking alcohol daily till 1 week ago and the subjects were required to consume at least 6 standard drinks per day over the last month.

Instruments used in this study were Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale – OCDS, Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire - SADQ, Addiction Severity Index - ASI , Visual Analogue Scale - VAS, Mini Mental Status Examination - MMSE, Timeline Method - TL

Result: Among 40 patients, the mean age of these patients was 38 years (38.55+9.60). 95% of them were Hindus and 5% Christians. 82.5% were married. 50% of patients has the income between Rs.15000-20000 per month. The correlation matrix of OCDS variables (OCDS-T, OCDS-O, OCDS-C), ASI-A, SADQ, VAS variables (G, F, I) and TL on all four follow-ups were measured. All correlations were positive and significant at p<0.001 obsessive compulsive drinking scale total score in 2 drinking outcome groups during 8 week treatment period was seen in which there is a difference between in two patient groups at baseline i.e. abstinent group had lower score than relapse group. This difference was consistently observed between the groups over the entire period of follow-up.

Conclusion: Craving was higher among those who relapsed than those who did not. Craving did predict high alcohol consumption and high index of severity at baseline and all through the follow up.