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Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on December 13, 2005
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2006 41(2):168-173; doi:10.1093/alcalc/agh252
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Medical Council on Alcohol. All rights reserved

COMORBID PHOBIC DISORDERS DO NOT INFLUENCE OUTCOME OF ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE TREATMENT. RESULTS OF A NATURALISTIC FOLLOW-UP STUDY

LOES A. MARQUENIE1,*, ANNEMIEK SCHADÉ1, ANTON J. L. M. VAN BALKOM1, MAARTEN KOETER2, SIPKE FRENKEN1, WIM VAN DEN BRINK2 and RICHARD VAN DYCK1

1 Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, VU—University Medical Centre, GGZ Buitenamstel and 2 Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Tel: +31 65 5197 293; Fax: +31 20 5736 524; E-mail: LMarquenie{at}ggzba.nl

(Received 29 September 2005; first review notified 31 October 2005; in revised form 9 November 2005; accepted 10 November 2005)

Aims: 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). Conclusion: 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.


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