Page 139 - PhD GT

respond to the same 36 items, but the instructions on the second occasion are different to those given on the first occasion. Responses are 'usually stops me' (2), 'sometimes stops me' (1), 'never stops me' (0) and 'don't know' (0). In the 1984 study the authors found that frequency of coping behaviours per se when measured at intake was not related to drinking outcome, whereas perceived effectiveness of coping behaviours did distinguish between heavy drinkers (defined as those who drank the daily equivalent of five or more pints of beer, one and a half or more bottles of wine, one bottle of fortified wine and half a bottle of spirits) and abstainers (those for whom there was no evidence of any drinking during the period from discharge to follow up). The abstinent group had a higher mean score for the effectiveness of coping behaviours overall, and significantly higher scores on two of the four factors. The component factors were: positive thinking, negative thinking, avoidance / distraction and social support seeking. Moderate drinkers (defined as those whose consumption was less than the daily equivalent for the heavy drinker group) at follow up had lower scores on both scales than did abstainers or heavy drinkers. In other words they used fewer coping strategies and thought the coping strategies were less effective than did either the heavy drinkers or the abstainers. These latter two groups were thought perhaps to be more severely dependent than the moderate drinking group and the authors therefore investigated the relationship between coping behaviour frequency, perceived effectiveness of coping behaviours and dependence. The measure of dependence used was a behavioural / physiological scale consisting of six items measuring the intensity of symptoms such as tremulousness, loss of control and morning drinking. They did not find any significant differences between the three groups on their dependence scores at intake. In other words, degree of dependence, when measured on the basis of the syndrome idea, did not distinguish the groups. No relationship was found between dependence and coping behaviours or their perceived effectiveness; a relationship was found between frequency of use of coping behaviours and perceived effectiveness and drinking outcome in the heavy drinkers / abstainers group.
When the authors looked at the coping behaviours which participants in the three outcome groups (light / moderate drinkers, abstainers, heavy drinkers) had not used at intake, the light / moderate drinking group differed significantly from the other two groups combined. Subjects in this group ticked the answer 'I have never tried this' significantly more often than subjects in the other two groups. It may be that people who achieve a moderate drinking outcome use different coping strategies or fewer coping strategies than people who have a heavy drinking or abstinent outcome and this may be due to a difference in degree of dependence that a questionnaire measuring physiological symptoms of withdrawal is not able to measure. It has been suggested elsewhere
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