Personality profile and short-term treatment outcome in patients with alcohol dependence: A study from South India

BACKGROUND: Studying personality profiles allows researchers to generate important hypotheses in risk factors and correlates of alcohol use/misuse. Studies examining the association between personality traits and treatment outcome are limited in India. We studied the correlation between personality and treatment outcome in patients with alcohol dependence. METHODS: Adult participants with alcohol dependence were recruited from the inpatient and outpatient wards of de-addiction unit of a tertiary care facility in India using a prospective design and followed up after 3 months. Questionnaires administered were revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R), alcohol use disorders identification test, and advanced warning of alcohol relapse (AWARE). RESULTS: Out of 99 recruited participants (92% males) with mean age of 37 (±8.36) years, 82 (82.8%) patients were followed up to 3 months. E4 (activity) facet of the extraversion domain in the NEO-PI-R significantly correlated with the baseline drinking scores ( CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that factors related to extraversion, specifically, high activity might be associated with higher drinking as well as higher risk of alcohol relapse. Predicting alcohol relapse by studying the personality traits would help clinicians in improving treatment outcomes

Stress Sleep and Inflammation

This project is an intramural effort by ICMR-NIOH, in collaboration with GCS Medical College and Research Centre, Ahmedabad. Focused on female nurses, the study seeks to explore the interrelationships between occupational stress, sleep quality, and inflammation

AFDafter

To initiate alcohol late or early</p

AFD_before.PNG

 Age at first drink and typical drink per day. Box-whisker plot depicting people who initiated alcohol at less than 21 years developed heavy drinking pattern in later adult life in terms of typical alcohol drink consumed per day. X marks depict mean values. </p

DHA Manuscript

Purpose: To investigate the role of DHA supplementation in preventing Age Related Cognitive Decline (ARCD) in cognitive domains by conducting systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Relevant clinical trials were systematically searched at Medline-Pubmed, Scopus, Cochrane, ProQuest and Embase databases since inception to June 2018. The PRISMA guidelines were adhered for data abstraction, quality assessment and validity of included randomized control trails. Study details such as participant characteristics, DHA supplementation and cognitive function outcome measures i.e. memory, attention, working memory and executive function scores, were extracted and performed meta-analysis according to Cochrane guidelines. Additional meta-regression and subgroup analysis was performed to detect confounding variables and sensitivity of results respectively. Results: Ten studies including 2327 elderly individuals were part of the final results. Study exhibited minimal or no pooled incremental effects on memory (0.22, 95%CI=-0.17 to 0.61, I2=94.36%, p&lt;0.001), attention (0.1, 95%CI=-0.04 to 0.25, I2=32.25%, p=0.18), working memory (0.01, 95%CI=-0.10 to 0.12, I2=0%, p=0.89) and executive function (0.03, 95%CI=-0.05 to 0.11, I2=78.48%, p&lt;0.001) among DHA supplemented group. While results from standard mean difference between groups on memory (0.08, 95%CI=-0.12 to 0.28, I2=76.82%, p&lt;0.001), attention (0.04, 95%CI=-0.09 to 0.23, I2=42.63%, p=0.11), working memory (-0.08, 95%CI=-0.26 to 0.10, I2=37.57%, p=0.17) and executive function (0.17, 95%CI=-0.01 to 0.36, I2=78.48%, p&lt;0.001). Results remained unaffected in multiple sensitivity and sub-group analyses. Conclusions: Current evidences don’t support the role of DHA supplementation, in preventing / retarding ARCD of memory, executive function, attention and working memory. Protocol registered at PROSPERO (ID: PROSPERO 2018 CRD42018099401)

Relation between age at first alcohol drink & adult life drinking patterns in alcohol-dependent patients

Background & objectives: Age at first drink has its influence on later life drinking patterns. The association between age at first drink and adult alcohol consumption has not been studied in clinical population. This study was aimed to determine the age at first drink and its correlation with adult life drinking patterns in alcohol-dependent patients. Methods: Adult participants with alcohol dependence were included from the inpatient and outpatient wards of a tertiary care de-addiction facility in India. Questionnaires administered were National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-Quantity Frequency for alcohol and the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence for tobacco. Results: Of the 99 participants (92% males) with mean age 37±8.36 yr, mean age at first drink was 21.14±5.33 yr. After controlling for age, satisfaction with life scores and smoking, age at first drink showed a significant negative correlation with drinking days per week (r=-0.259, P=0.012), typical drink per day (r=-0.218, P=0.035) and maximum drinks in the previous month/year (r=-0.233, -0.223 and P=0.024, 0.031, respectively). Interpretation & conclusions: Our study suggested that earlier age of first drink correlated with chronic heavy drinking patterns in later adult life in alcohol-dependent patients. This may have implications for alcohol control policies determining the age for legal consumption

Sleep Quality – A Potential Link in the Relation Between Occupational Stress and Inflammation

Job stress by effort-reward imbalance (ERI) is a predictor of burnout. Job stress is associated with inflammation, that is a forerunner of distal outcomes, including mortality. Sleep quality, an important association between job stress and inflammation has not been extensively studied. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the relationship between job stress, sleep quality, and inflammation among female nurses. As the primary outcome measure, a composite inflammation score was constructed from five interleukins (IL-6, 8, 10, 1β, TNF-α). Among fifty participants (mean age 32±7 years, work experience 105±8 months), there was poor sleep quality among the high ERI group (p=0.021). Overcommitment(OC), an intrinsic component of the ERI, was related to poor sleep quality (β =0.21, p =0.025). High OC (β =2.4, p = 0.025) and increased sleep latency (β = 8.3, p =0.027) were associated with elevated inflammation. There was a significant interaction between ERI and OC on inflammation (β =5.186, p =0.017) and conditional effects of ERI on OC to inflammation only in the high ERI group (p =0.002), not in the low ERI group (p = 0.839). Composite inflammation scores from various inflammatory markers may be potential indicators of adverse outcomes in burnout studies among healthcare workers

Personality Profile and Short-term Treatment Outcome in Patients with Alcohol Dependence: A Study from South India

BACKGROUND: Studying personality profiles allows researchers to generate important hypotheses in risk factors and correlates of alcohol use/misuse. Studies examining the association between personality traits and treatment outcome are limited in India. We studied the correlation between personality and treatment outcome in patients with alcohol dependence. METHODS: Adult participants with alcohol dependence were recruited from the inpatient and outpatient wards of de-addiction unit of a tertiary care facility in India using a prospective design and followed up after 3 months. Questionnaires administered were revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R), alcohol use disorders identification test, and advanced warning of alcohol relapse (AWARE). RESULTS: Out of 99 recruited participants (92% males) with mean age of 37 (±8.36) years, 82 (82.8%) patients were followed up to 3 months. E4 (activity) facet of the extraversion domain in the NEO-PI-R significantly correlated with the baseline drinking scores (r = 0.204, P = 0.042, n = 99) and AWARE scores (r = 0.276, P = 0.043, n = 54). There was a significant negative correlation between the E2 (gregariousness) facet and satisfaction with life scores (r = −0.211, P = 0.036, n = 99). Age at first drink was significantly lower among relapsers (P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that factors related to extraversion, specifically, high activity might be associated with higher drinking as well as higher risk of alcohol relapse. Predicting alcohol relapse by studying the personality traits would help clinicians in improving treatment outcomes