Quality of Life in alcohol-dependent subjects - a review

Although alcohol misuse is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and an important health care burden, the Quality of Life (QoL) of alcohol misusing subjects has been little studied to date. For example, only 5 out of 442 a ccepted abstracts at a recent international QoL conference concerned alcoho l-dependent subjects. This paper reviews the ongoing and published work in the area focusing upon QoL characteristics of alcohol-dependent subjects, t he link between QoL comorbidity and alcoholism, QoL alcohol dependency and social environment, changes in QoL status as a result of abstinence, minima l or controlled drinking, QoL as a predictor of relapse to heavy drinking a nd the importance of using a QoL measure when assessing treatment outcomes together with some of the present difficulties with existing measures. The main conclusions from the review were that the QoL of alcohol-dependent sub jects is very poor but improved as a result of abstinence, controlled or mi nimal drinking. The important factors in the QoL of alcohol-dependent subje cts are psychiatric comorbidity, social environment and disturbed sleep.