Risk factors for alcohol use relapse after abstinence in patients with alcoholic liver disease

INTRODUCTION: In patients with alcoholic liver disease, abstinence from alcohol is an important aspect of treatment. Once abstinence is achieved, the challenge is to avoid relapse of alcohol use. This study aims to analyse the significant risk factors for alcohol relapse thereby identifying the patients with high risk for recidivism to have an early social and medical intervention. METHODOLOGY: This was an observational and a retrospective type of study. Patients with chronic liver disease and had alcohol use relapse after abstinence were classified into Group A. Patients who did not have relapse after abstinence were classified into Group B. The two groups were compared for various social and personal and disease related factors. Student “t” test was used for raw data and Chi square test was used for consolidated data to find significant difference between variables. RESULTS: Overall nine factors were analysed. The factors which were found to be significant for predicting relapse are quantity of alcohol consumption per week, duration of abstinence, associated smoking, marital status, severity of liver disease (Child-Pugh scoring system). The other factors like age of starting alcohol consumption, duration of alcohol consumption, family history of alcohol intake and MELD score were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: This study identifies the risk factors associated with alcohol relapse in patients with alcoholic liver disease. The data from this study can be used to identify individuals who are high risk for relapse and treat them with pharmacological and psychosocial methods to prevent relapse.