Alcohol use disorders among psychiatric patients treated at an university hospital in Ethiopia

Introduction
There is a high incidence of alcohol use disorders (AUD) among patients with mental disorders. This study aimed to assess the rate of alcohol use disorders among psychiatric patients undergoing treatment at the University of Gondar Specialized Hospital in the North West Ethiopia.

Material and methods
A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 01, 2017 to February 28, 2018. A 10-item screening tool called the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was employed to evaluate AUD. Patients were categorised as having alcohol use disorders (AUD) when their score is above 8. Descriptive statistics were conducted for categorical variables. Binary logistic regression analysis was undertaken to determine the correlates of AUD.

Results
Overall, 200 patients were included in the study. The majority of the participants were males (126, 63%) with a mean age of 34.73 ± 10.91. Slightly more than half (105, 52.5%) of them had AUD and more than 30% (63, 31.5%) experienced harmful alcohol use. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that for each month increase in the duration of the disease, the rate of AUD increases by more than 1.5 times with AOR: 1.577 (1.296-1.663).

Discussion
The study findings revealed that risky alcohol consumption was high among patients with mental health disorders. It was also noted that the prevalence of alcohol use disorder was varied among different psychiatric conditions. Schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder patients experienced a very large burden of AUD as compared to patient with other mental conditions. However, the small sample size and this single-centre study with its short duration might limit the findings in terms of their reliability (reproducibility) and generalisation.

Conclusions
The prevalence of AUD was high among psychiatric patients in the study setting of North West Ethiopia. The long duration of the mental illness may expose patients to high alcohol consumption risk. Prevention of further consumption and rehabilitation of victims is required to counter disease progression and relapses. Keywords: AUDIT, Hazardous alcohol use, Psychiatric patients, Ethiopia.