Temperament and character of patients with alcohol toxicity during COVID - 19 pandemic

• Published in: BMC psychiatry 2021-01, Vol.21 (1), p.49-7, Article 49
• Main Authors: Estedlal, Ali Reza, Mani, Arash, Vardanjani, Hossein Molavi, Kamali, Mahsa, Zarei, Leila, Heydari, Seyed Taghi, Lankarani, Kamran Bagheri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abuse; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Alcohol; Alcohol abuse; Alcohol use; Alcoholic beverages; Alcoholism; Behavior; Beverages; Bootlegging; Character; Coping; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Demographic aspects; Diagnosis; Disease prevention; Disease transmission; Drinking behavior; Drug abuse; Elementary education; Emergency medical care; Epidemics; Female; Humans; Interviews; Iran; Iran - epidemiology; Legal medicine; Male; Males; Mental disorders; Mental health; Middle Aged; Pandemics; Patient outcomes; Patients; Personality; Personality Inventory; Pneumonia; Population; Psychiatry; Psychological aspects; Public health; Questionnaires; Reinforcement; Risk factors; SARS-CoV-2; Temperament; Temperament and character; Toxicity; Trauma; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-244X; 1471-244X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12888-021-03052-1

Corona virus epidemic may be acts as a stressor or trauma that affects both physical health and mental health. People exhibited various reactive behaviors to confront with this stressful situation. In Iran, one of the common motives for alcohol consumption is to scape problems and cope with stresses. It has been shown that personality factors influence alcohol consumption, since they are associated with drinking motives. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between temperament and character and alcohol abuse. This cross-section study was conducted on 135 alcohol intoxicated patients admitted to emergency room in March 2020 and 255 participants who were randomly selected from public in Shiraz. A questionnaire consisted of TCI (Temperament and character inventory) and several questions about COVID-19 pandemic. It was completed by a trained interviewer using the matched answer technique. Demographic factors were self-reported. Among the alcohol intoxicated group, 117 (86.7%) were males and 18(13.3%) were females. The mean age of the participants was 32.43 ± 10.81 years. Among control group, 99 (38.8%) were males and 156 (61.2%) were females. The mean age of control group was 33.12 ± 14.77 years. Alcohol toxicity was mostly observed among the young males (male/female ratio was 6.45). According to temperament and character index, mean scores of novelty seeking, harm avoidant, and self-transcendence were higher in the alcohol toxicity group than normal population (P