Comorbid phobic disorders do not influence outcome of alcohol dependence treatment. Results of a naturalistic follow-up study.

AIMS: Despite claims that comorbid anxiety disorders tend to lead to a poor outcome in the treatment of alcohol dependence, the few studies on this topic show conflicting results.

OBJECTIVE

To test whether the outcome of treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent patients with a comorbid phobic disorder is worse than that of similar patients without a comorbid phobic disorder.

METHODS

The probabilities of starting to drink again and of relapsing into regular heavy drinking in (i) a group of 81 alcohol-dependent patients with comorbid social phobia or agoraphobia were compared with those in (ii) a group of 88 alcohol-dependent patients without anxiety disorders in a naturalistic follow-up using Cox regression analysis.

RESULTS

Adjusted for initial group differences, the hazard ratio for the association of phobic disorders with resumption of drinking was 1.05 (95% CI, 0.85-1.30, P = 0.66) and the adjusted hazard ratio for the association of phobic disorders with a relapse into regular heavy drinking was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.78-1.33, P = 0.89).

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study do not confirm the idea that alcohol-dependent patients who have undergone alcohol-dependence treatment are at greater risk of a relapse if they have a comorbid anxiety disorder. No differences were found in abstinence duration or time to relapse into regular heavy drinking between patients with and without comorbid phobic disorders.