• Maja Rus-Makovec and Zdenka Cebasek-Travnik.
• Centre for Alcohol dependency Treatment, University Psychiatric Hospital Ljubljana, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. maja.rus@psih-klinika.si
• Psychiat Danub. 2008 Jun 1; 20 (2): 194-207.

ObjectivesThere are many evidences of co-morbidity influence on alcohol dependency treatment outcome. We were interested in the question 'Do alcohol dependent patients with different co-occurring mental and medical conditions significantly differ in subjective attributes of well-being and in abstinence rate two years after the end of intensive alcohol dependency treatment'.Subjects And Methods222 ex - patients participated in the research 24 months after the end of intensive alcohol dependency treatment, 74% of them males (mean age = 46.17, SD = 8.79) and 26% females (mean age = 46.35, SD = 8.10).ResultsNo significant differences were found in any dependent variable regarding any independent variable in "presence of any somatic diagnose" (yes/no) and "personality disorders". "Depressive vs. non depressive" differed significantly only in the evaluation of important interpersonal relations, while "anxious vs. non - anxious" and "benzodiazepine dependent vs. nondependent" significantly differed in all self - evaluations, except in evaluation of important interpersonal relations. No significant differences were found between (non)abstinents regarding any of six categories of mental disorder and medical conditions (yes/no) and no significant differences were found in any self - evaluation regarding the participation in different kinds of after-care. A greater number of patients continued to abstain from alcohol if they continued in aftercare 24 months after the end of intensive treatment.ConclusionPatients with different somatic and mental co-occurring disorders did not differ in abstinence rate. However, membership in after-care 24 months after the end of intensive therapy significantly contributed to the abstinence rate. Abstinence was found to be connected with more positive self-evaluation. Patients with somatic co-occurring diagnoses tended to have more positive self-perceptions than patients with co-occurring mental disorders.

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