Abstract:
The objective of this descriptive research was to identify factors predicting alcohol withdrawal in alcohol dependence clients including age, alcohol drinking withdrawal history, hypertension, alcohol consumption, anxiety, symptom expectancy and social support. The subjects were alcohol dependence clients diagnosed as alcohol dependence according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) who attened Outpatient department of Prasrimahabhodi psychiatric hospital, Khonkan psychiatric hospital and Nakhonratchasima psychiatric hospital. A total of 154 clients who met the inclusion criteria of having mild alcohol withdrawal level and agreed to participate in the study were recruited. The research instruments were the personal data record, Alcohol Withdrawal Scale (AWS), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Anxiety including Test State anxiety-ANX-S and Trait-anxiety, Symptom Expectancy and Severity Questionnaire (SAES), and Social support. The 4th to 6th instruments were tested for content validity by five experts. The Cronbachs Alpha Coefficient reliability of the 4th , 5th and 6th instrument was .88, .77, .78, .82 and .90, respectively. Data were analyzed using Percentage, Mean, Standard deviation, the Fisher exact probability, Chi-Square, Pearsons Product Moment Correlation, and Stepwise multiple regression analysis. Major findings were as follows: 1. Alcohol consumption, Symptom expectancy, social support and hypertension altogether were able to significantly predict alcohol withdrawal in alcohol dependence clients at 38 percent, at p.05 level. 2. Age, alcohol drinking withdrawal history, and anxiety could not predict alcohol withdrawal in alcohol dependence clients. The equation derived from the standardized score was: Alcohol withdrawal = .284* Z Alcohol consumption + .265*Z symptom expectancy and severity of alcohol withdrawal -.204* Z social support -.183*Z hypertension