Examination of using alcohol to cope, depressive symptoms, and perceived social support in persons with HIV and Hepatitis C

ABSTRACT

Depression is common among people living with HIV (PLWH) and some likely turn to alcohol to cope with this emotional distress. Using alcohol to cope is associated with increased alcohol use, persistent longitudinal alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems. This association is particularly concerning among PLWH who are co-infected with Hepatitis C (HCV) because alcohol adds to the damage already caused by HCV. Despite data showing the associated risks of using alcohol to cope, scant research has examined factors that might contribute to coping-based alcohol use in HIV-HCV patients, such as limited social support. Baseline data from a randomized trial of strategies to reduce alcohol use in co-infected HIV and HCV adult patients (n=110) were analyzed. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the association between using alcohol to cope, depression, and four aspects of social support, controlling for demographic variables. Results showed that using alcohol to cope was not significantly correlated with social support but was significantly correlated with depressive symptoms. In fact, depressive symptoms and severity of alcohol consumption accounted for nearly 45% of the variance related to coping-based alcohol use. These data highlight the central role of depression in the coping motives-alcohol use relationship among co-infected patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol
• coping
• depression
• social support
• HIV
• Hepatitis C

Acknowledgment

Dr. Moitra had primary responsibility for drafting the manuscript, including completing the literature review and interpretation of results. Dr. Anderson completed the data analysis and reporting of results. Drs. Herman, Hayaki, and Pinkston contributed to the literature review and interpretation of results. Drs. Kim, Pinkston, and Stein substantially contributed to the study's conception, design, interpretation of the data, and reporting of the results. All listed authors approve of this submitted draft and consent to their names on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grant R01 AA023726. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.