scholarly journals Scheduled care – as a way of caring. A phenomenological study of being cared for when suffering from alcohol use disorders

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Hanne Mørkenborg Bové

Excessive alcohol consumption is health damaging and is also recognized as one of the major avoidable health risk factors. Alcohol use disorders are classified among one of the most harmful, debilitating disease categories and patients are frequent visitors in the emergency departments. The meeting between patient and healthcarer is considered contradictory and characterized by dilemmas and arbitrariness. Furthermore, this patient group differs from the regular patient. They are often characterized by very complex health pictures and chaotic social problems spawned by turbulent lifestyles. However, the experience of a hospitalization from a patient perspective is sparsely documented in a scientific context. The aim of this study was to elucidate the lived experience of how patients with alcohol use disorders experience being cared for when admitted to acute medical units.   The data set consists of 15 in-depth interviews with patients suffering from alcohol use disorders admitted to an acute medical unit. The study is anchored in the phenomenological philosophy and the methodology applied is a descriptive phenomenological method as defined by Dahlberg. The intention is to identify and understand the essences, patterns, and structures of the lived experience of being cared for when hospitalized and suffering from alcohol use disorders. Data has been analysed according to the guidelines in Reflective Lifeworld Research, given by Dahlberg. Being cared for was experienced as a two-staged process that changed throughout the hospitalization from an experience of scheduled care experienced as caring to an experience of scheduled care experienced as non-caring. Four constituents further described the variable experiences: being in a safe haven, sharing a tacit but mutual goal, being in a chaotic space, and being on your own. The study showed that patients suffering from alcohol use disorders call for an intentional and distinctive attentiveness from the carers throughout their hospitalization. Being both seen and met in an authentic presence by carers was a powerful tool that helped ease the hospitalization. Likewise the absence of the authentic presence during the second stage may have hindered the carers notice and respond to a transfer of attention within the patients, and thus adapting the care provided.

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlous Tuithof ◽  
Margreet ten Have ◽  
Wim van den Brink ◽  
Wilma Vollebergh ◽  
Ron de Graaf

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-400
Author(s):  
Christine Timko ◽  
Michael A. Cucciare ◽  
Kathleen M. Grant ◽  
Lance Brendan Young ◽  
Fernanda S. Rossi ◽  
...  

2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (12) ◽  
pp. 1894-1902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Scouller ◽  
Katherine M Conigrave ◽  
Petra Macaskill ◽  
Les Irwig ◽  
John B Whitfield

Abstract Background: Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) has been used as a test for excessive alcohol consumption in research, clinical, and medico-legal settings, but there remain conflicting data on its accuracy, with sensitivities ranging from <20% to 100%. We examined evidence of its benefit over a conventional and less expensive test, γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and compared the accuracy of different CDT assay methods. Methods: We performed a systematic review using summary ROC analysis of 110 studies prior to June 1998 on the use of CDT in the detection of alcohol dependence or hazardous/harmful alcohol use. Results: We identified several potential sources of bias in studies. In studies examining CDT and GGT in the same subjects, subject characteristics were less likely to influence the comparison. In such paired studies, the original Pharmacia CDT assay was significantly more accurate than GGT, but the modified CDTect assay did not perform as well as the original and was not significantly better than GGT. The accuracy of the AXIS %CDT assay was statistically indistinguishable from modified CDTect. Several CDT assay methods appeared promising, in particular, liquid chromatography (chromatofocusing, HPLC, fast protein liquid chromatography) and isoelectric focusing, but there were insufficient paired studies from which to draw firm conclusions. Conclusions: In studies published before June 1998, the results obtained with commercially available CDT assays were not significantly better than GGT as markers of excessive alcohol use in paired studies. Further high-quality studies comparing CDTect (modified) and other CDT assays with GGT in the same subjects are needed.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Giorgi ◽  
David B. Yaden ◽  
Johannes C. Eichstaedt ◽  
Robert D. Ashford ◽  
Anneke E.K. Buffone ◽  
...  

Excessive alcohol use in the US contributes to over 88,000 deaths per year and costs over $250 billion annually. While previous studies have shown that excessive alcohol use can be detected from general patterns of social media engagement, we characterized how drinking-specific language varies across regions and cultures in the US. From a database of 38 billion public tweets, we selected those mentioning “drunk”, found the words and phrases distinctive of drinking posts, and then clustered these into topics and sets of semantically related words. We identified geolocated “drunk” tweets and correlated their language with the prevalence of self-reported excessive alcohol consumption (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; BRFSS). We then identified linguistic markers associated with excessive drinking in different regions and cultural communities as identified by the American Community Project. “Drunk” tweet frequency (of the 3.3 million geolocated “drunk” tweets) correlated with excessive alcohol consumption at both the county and state levels (r = 0.26 and 0.45, respectively, p < 0.01). Topic analyses revealed that excessive alcohol consumption was most correlated with references to drinking with friends (r = 0.20), family (r = 0.15), and driving under the influence (r = 0.14). Using the American Community Project classification, we found a number of cultural markers of drinking: religious communities had a high frequency of anti-drunk driving tweets, Hispanic centers discussed family members drinking, and college towns discussed sexual behavior. This study shows that Twitter can be used to explore the specific sociocultural contexts in which excessive alcohol use occurs within particular regions and communities. These findings can inform more targeted public health messaging and help to better understand cultural determinants of substance abuse.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1642
Author(s):  
Olga Yu. Fedorenko ◽  
Ekaterina V. Mikhalitskaya ◽  
Valentina A. Toshchakova ◽  
Anton J.M. Loonen ◽  
Nikolay A. Bokhan ◽  
...  

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) not only influences individuals and families but also has a lasting social impact on communities at the national level. Dopaminergic neurotransmission is involved in excessive alcohol consumption. Phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate-4-kinase type 2 α (PIP4K2A) plays an important role in the regulation of ascending dopamine pathways. In this study; we determined possible associations between nine polymorphisms in PIP4K2A and AUD in Russian men. Methods: 279 Russian men with AUD were investigated. The control group consisted of 222 healthy men from the general Russian population. Genotyping of DNA samples for nine polymorphic variants of PIP4K2A was carried out by the Applied Biosystems™ QuantStudio™ 5 Real-Time PCR System with use of the TaqMan1 Validated SNP Genotyping Assay (Applied Biosystems; CШA). Results: Carriage of the PIP4K2A rs2230469*TT/T genotype/allele was a relative risk factor for developing AUD in men (p = 0.026 and p = 0.0084 accordingly). Moreover; men with AUD had a higher frequency of PIP4K2A rs746203*T allele (p = 0.023) compared to healthy men. Conclusions: For the first time; we demonstrated different PIP4K2A polymorphisms to be associated with AUD presumably due to dopamine system modulation resulting from regulation of the lateral habenula.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-106
Author(s):  
Toby Reynolds ◽  
◽  
Fiona Cooke ◽  
Nicholas Murch ◽  
◽  
...  

Alcohol-use disorders including acute intoxication and withdrawal are common in the acute medical setting. Acute physicians should be aware of the indications for inpatient detoxification, and be able to liase with specialist alcohol services in the hospital and in the community to determine those patients for whom community-based detoxification may be beneficial. Additionally, it is important to recognise the benefit of Brief Interventions for higher-risk drinkers who are not yet dependent. For patients with confusion and a possible history of high alcohol intake and malnutrition, acute physicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for Wernicke’s Encephalopathy and treat appropriately with parenteral thiamine.


Author(s):  
Beata Gavurova ◽  
Viera Ivankova ◽  
Martin Rigelsky

The objective of the study was to examine the effects of perceived stress on depression and subsequently to examine the effects of depression on alcohol use disorders. The data were obtained by an electronic questionnaire survey during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (n=1523 Slovak college students). Descriptive, regression and correlation analysis were used in the analytical processing, while the analyses included students' scores in three diagnostic tools (Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Patient Health Questionnaire for depression (PHQ 9) and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)), as well as gender and income characteristics. The PSS identified an increased level of perceived stress in female students, in contrast, the AUDIT showed an increased level of alcohol use disorders in male students. Differences in mental and behavioural disorders between the gender and income categories were significant in most of the analysed cases. In terms of gender-income characteristics, it was possible to confirm a significant positive effect of the PSS score on the PHQ 9 score, as well as a significant positive effect of the PHQ 9 score on the AUDIT score. As a result, efforts to reduce stress will be reflected in a reduction of depressive disorders as well as a reduction of excessive alcohol consumption among students.


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