Purpose in Life Mediating the Relationship between Depression and Heavy Drinking in Post-Treatment Among Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorders
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Date
2019-01-01
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Department
Psychology
Program
Psychology
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Access limited to the UMBC community. Item may possibly be obtained via Interlibrary Loan thorugh a local library, pending author/copyright holder's permission.
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Abstract
Depression has long been associated with the development of alcohol use disorders (AUD) and implicated throughout the recovery process. By better understanding the mechanisms that help to explain this relationship, the treatment field can more effectively promote quality of life and prevent relapse independent of the treatment-type employed. Purpose in life (PIL) has been established as a mediating factor that protects against other health disorders and has been significantly related to both depression and alcohol use outcomes separately. The primary goal of this study was to consider purpose in life as a partial mediator in the relationship between depression and heavy alcohol drinking among outpatient alcohol use disorder patients across a one-year post-treatment period. Estimating indirect effects attributed to purpose in life over time in this relationship was assessed using a longitudinal analysis known as latent difference score (LDS) modeling. Purpose in life (month 3) longitudinally mediated the relation between depression (month 0) and drinking outcomes at month 12 (i.e. drinks per drinking day, percent heavy drinking days). This was anchored by strong correlations between depression and PIL (maximum r = -.70). Depression change scores measured during the treatment course (baseline to 3 months) also served as a significant predictor of post-treatment alcohol use outcomes, improving upon the prediction of depression measured only at baseline. However, contrary to a priori hypotheses, the use of variables measured at one time interval (status scores) primarily led to higher estimates of indirect effects compared to inclusion of variables created from difference scores between two time intervals (change scores). The results of this study further support the dynamic link between depression and problematic drinking throughout the treatment process. Clinicians are encouraged to include measurement-based care for depression in their practice to promote treatment retention and strengthen relapse prevention. Purpose in life seems to serve as a protective factor between depression and future heavy alcohol consumption and may be considered one of a number of mechanisms in taking a contextual-behavioral approach to alcohol use disorder recovery.