Socio economic status and severity of alcohol dependence among selected subjects

Introduction: Substance abuse becomes an enormous problem worldwide. The substance use and its direct and indirect complication of have many medical, social and economic consequences. Addressing alcohol related problems it not only limited to biomedical field, but it involves socioeconomic and political dimensions also. The severity of Alcohol dependence has a great impact on social, economic and health of the individual, family as well as on the nation. Aim: Toassess the socio-economic status and the severity of alcohol dependence among the selected subjects. Methodology: Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria 30 cases and 30 controls were chosen. Socioeconomic Scale, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) were used to assess the socioeconomic status and severity of alcohol dependence among selected subjects. Results: 70% of the patients scored more than 26 out of the maximum score of 40. This indicates the severity of dependence. SADQ categorize the dependence severity. About 50% were categorized as moderate, 27% as severe and very severe based on the scores. Cumulatively 77% of the patients have significant dependence to alcohol. The present study reports severity of alcohol dependence among the selected subjects and reducing the same is the need of the hour which would enable youth to focus on productivity thereby contributing to the growth of the nation