Coping Styles of Alcohol-Dependent Individuals: Comparison with Depressed Patients and Controls

The profile of coping mechanisms in a sample of 164 subjects (60 alcohol-dependent individuals, 47 depressed patients, 57 controls) was investigated. Data were collected over the period January-December 2004, at the Eginition Psychiatric Hospital of the Athens University Medical School in Athens, capital of Greece. The Albert Einstein College of Medicine Coping Styles Questionnaire (AECOM-CSQ; Plutchik & Conte, 1989), and the Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Rating Scales (Hamilton, 1959, 1960) were used for the assessment. Post hoc analysis of variance for comparisons between groups and logistic regressions using coping styles as predictor variables for group classification were used for data analysis. The main findings were that alcohol-dependent individuals could be distinguished from either depressed or control subjects on the ground of their coping mechanisms with stress, and that men and women use different patterns of psychological adaptation. More specifically, group classification in terms of specific coping styles could be predicted with an overall accuracy of more than 84%; in men, classification related to the coping mechanism of substitution, and in women to blame, reversal, and substitution. These findings may have implications for individually tailored psychotherapeutic interventions in alcohol-dependent individuals.