Drinking motives in alcohol use disorder patients

A study published by Tragesser and Sheer detected the impact that drinking motives (B) could play on the association that exists between personality disorder symptoms (A) and alcohol use disorder (C). This study wanted to look at cluster B specific personality disorder. Also, they precisely wanted to look at the two drinking motives of enhancement and coping drinking. The drinking motive of coping can best be defined as trying to deal with being in an emotional state (Tragesser, 2008). An example of this would be if you consumed alcohol after breaking up with your significant other. The other drinking motive they described was the enhancement motive. This could be described as trying to increase your already positive emotional state (Tragesser, 2008).

A good example of this could be having a couple extra drinks while out partying with your friends. The findings from this study saw that there was a mediator with enhancement drinking but not with coping drinking (Tragesser, 2008). This researchers deemed this important because this showed that someone being impulsive and having positive emotions could lead to a slippery slope. A study done by Bremer-Landau in 2014 wanted to look at gender (B) as a moderator when it came to Alcohol Use Disorder (C) and PTSD separately and interchangeably in young adults (A). The results from this study showed that there was a higher rate of AUD among males compared to females in the younger adult population (Bremer-Landau, 2014).

Bremer-Landau found this interesting because almost all other research showed that there seemed to be no difference between males and females when it came to AUD development in young adulthood. The researcher went on to talk about how this could potentially be misleading. They thought so with the factor of society playing a big role on females who have AUD symptoms not getting the right help compared to males (Bremer-Landau, 2014).

In other words, that the stigma that females shouldn’t drink excessively could limit the amount that seek out help. A guidebook done by McCrady and Epstein wanted to look at many different types of addictions. One specific section done by Hesselbrock and Epstein looked at the etiology behind alcohol use disorder. They believed that the etiology for alcohol use disorder is complex and truly doesn’t come from one specific factor (Hasselbrock, 1999). Some of the factors that could potentially cause AUD were genetics, environment, consequential events and other disorders leading to AUD. The most researched about cause was that of genetics. There are numerous reports that show having a family member who has AUD increases the chances that you develop AUD as well. This was especially seen when the father had AUD (Hasselbrock, 1999). Overall, all of the above seem to be a part of the etiology when it comes to AUD.