Comparison of Psychological Characteristics of Lesch Types 2 (Anxiety Model) and 3 (Depressive Model) Alcoholism

Jang, Sae Heon; Chang, Min Ho; Jae, Young Myo; Choi, Jin Hyuk; Lee, Gyeong Hwan

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Lesch types 2 (L2, anxiety model) and 3 (L3, depressive model) of alcoholism exhibit different responses to anti-craving agents, and most treatment guidelines provide differential treatment strategies for bipolar depression (DEP) and unipolar DEP. We compare the psychological characteristics of L2 and L3 alcoholism and between the unipolar and bipolar subgroups.
METHODS
We reviewed medical records of patients who were diagnosed with alcohol use disorder using the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and classified as L2 and L3 using Lesch Alcohol typology software. All patients completed self-report scales (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT], Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI], Beck Depression Inventory-II [BDI-II], and Korean Symptom Checklist-95 [KSCL95]). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test, and ANOVA.
RESULTS
Of the 43 patients, 23 were assigned L2, and 20 were assigned L3. The scores for the KSCL95 subscales fell generally in the increasing order of the L2-unipolar (L2U, n=10), L2-bipolar (L2B, n=13), L3-unipolar (L3U, n=11), and L3-bipolar (L3B, n=9) types. The L3B scores were greater than the L3U scores for most KSCL95 subscales, by contrast with the DEP and BAI scores.
CONCLUSION
We found psychological differences between L2 and L3 and identified the unique psychological characteristics for each subgroup by polarity. The psychological characteristics of these subgroups of alcohol use disorder may help improve the treatment success rates through individualized treatment strategies.