Emotional-type psychopathologic symptoms among patients with terminal chronic alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis.

Abstract Introduction Patients with toxic substance abuse syndrome, such as alcohol abuse, have elevated psychopathologic morbidity and mortality such as mood disorders. Objective To evaluate the emotional-type psychopathologic symptoms in patients with alcohol-induced hepatic cirrhosis on the liver transplant waiting list. Materials and methods Patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis who were candidates for liver transplant ( n = 41) completed the SA-45 questionnaire (Gonzalez y Cuevas; 88), which assesses nine dimensions: somatizations, obsessive-compulsivity, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. A control group consisted of patients with chronic nonalcoholic terminal hepatopathies ( n = 22). Results Seventy-six percent of patients had some kind of psychopathologic symptom compared to 68% of the patients in the control group with other nonalcoholic etiologies ( P > .05). The emotional-type clinical symptoms were: (1) somatizations: 37% of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis had this type of clinical symptoms compared to 32% of the control group ( P > .05); (2) obsessive-compulsivity: 56% versus 46%, respectively ( P > .05); (3) interpersonal sensitivity: 19% versus 9%, respectively ( P > .05); (4) depression: 54% versus 27%, respectively ( P = .045); (5) anxiety: 59% versus 46%, respectively ( P > .05); (6) hostility: 29% versus 5%, respectively ( P = .021); (7) phobic anxiety: 10% versus 14%, respectively ( P > .05); (8) paranoid Ideation: 7% versus 5%, respectively ( P > .05); (9) psychoticism: 5% versus 4%, respectively ( P > .05). Conclusions The patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis on the liver transplant waiting list had elevated psychopathologic symptoms. Depressive- and hostile-type emotional alterations were most frequent in this type of patients.