RESUMEN
Introduction: The aim of the study was to de-termine the influence of experiences, both personal , those occurring during therapy, of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental perfor-mance of alcohol dependent people receiving treatment.Material and methods: The 2021 study includ-ed 454 people (351 men and 103 women) completing therapy in various treatment centres in Poland. The tools comprised the Scale of Pan-demic-Related Difficulty, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anx-iety Disorder (GAD-7), the Penn Alcohol Crav-ing Scale (PACS), the Suicidal Behavior Ques-tionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ), the Life Satisfac-tion Scale (SWLS), the Working Alliance Inven-tory-Short Revised (WAI-SR).Results: Among the participants, the women ex-perienced many more associated difficulties , anxiety than the men in the pandemic. During treatment, 13% of respondents have relapsed, with this being more likely among those reporting re-stricted access to therapy. Difficulties at home and in close relationships were strongly associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Patients with COVID-19 symptoms were characterised by a high-er degree of psychopathological severity compared to those who did not. No differences were found be-tween those who received the entire therapy "face to face", those who participated remotely and those who received a combination of the two models.Discussion: The experience of a pandemic by those in therapy did not appear to be strong-ly influenced by its course. The greatest neg-ative effects concerned domestic difficulties and problems with close relationships. How-ever, women, those who displayed COVID-19 symptoms and those who lost their jobs during the pandemic period demonstrated worse men-tal performance.Conclusions: Remaining in therapy may have played a protective role in patients with alcohol dependence during the pandemic.
RESUMEN
Introduction: Although it is widely acknowl-edged that the COVID-19 pandemic has negative-ly affected the populations mental health, there has been little research into its effect on those with alcohol dependence, or those in addiction therapy during the period. The aim of the pres-ent study was to determine the level of mental performance of patients receiving treatment for alcohol dependence during the COVID-19 pan-demic.Material and methods: The study included 454 people (351 men and 103 women) completing inpatient, day-care and outpatient therapy in various dependence treatment centres in Po-land in 2021. All were surveyed with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Questionnaire (GAD-7), the Penn Alco-hol Craving Scale (PACS), the Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS).Results: The alcohol dependent patients finish-ing therapy demonstrated an intermediate level of mental performance, while about 20% exhib-ited serious disorders (elevated levels of depres-sion, anxiety, suicidal tendencies and alcohol craving). The patients completing inpatient ther-apy demonstrated more intense disorders than those completing day-care and outpatient thera-py. Intense disorders characterised also women, people with accompanying mental disorders and those who had previously used drugs in addition to alcohol.Discussion: Around 20% of those completing therapy displayed serious mental disorders, i.e. less than those identified in the research on the func-tioning of the general population during the pan-demic. The weaker performance of women and people with co-occurring mental disorders was confirmed.Conclusions: People completing therapy during a pandemic generally display an intermediate level of mental performance and life satisfaction. However, our findings regarding the more intense disorders require confirmation in further studies conducted after the end of the pandemic.