[Effects of autism features on alcoholism--especially from the aspect of recovery promoting factors].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: It is important to evaluate and classify individual features of patients to select an appropriate treatment for alcoholism. In this study, we classified alcoholism types according to strength/weakness of autism features and investigated how these features were associated with onset, course, and especially continuation of abstinence. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The subjects were 102 man outpatients diagnosed with alcoholism. The investigations were made on 3 areas 1. Basic background including age, family and occupational information, 2. Medical variables including the number of years since the first visit, with/without juvenile onset, psychiatric complications, hospital admission history, self-help group participation, and the longest abstinence period, and 3. Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores. The AQ test is a self-administered test of autism features on a maximum scale of 50 points, based on the concept of "autism spectrum". RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation) of AQ scores of 102 subjects was 22.6 (7.18) with normal distribution. 78 subjects who had been followed-up for more than 2 years were classified into the low score (0-15) group of 11 subjects, the average score (16-29) group of 51 subjects, and the high score (30-50) group of 16 subjects, according to their AQ scores. No significant difference was observed in terms of patients' background and medical variables, but the number of subjects with stable abstinence (more than 2 years) was higher in the high score group compared to the average and low score groups (p = 0.0208). CONCLUSION: At least for men, it was presumed that continuation of alcohol abstinence was more difficult in the average score group (general type) and the low score group (over-empathy type) compared to the high score group (autism type) (odds ratio 5.76); treatment approaches should be managed appropriately for these 3 types. It was also shown that the AQ test was a useful indicator for abstinence prognosis.