Hitting rock bottom? Resource loss as a predictor of alcoholism treatment completion
Sammanfattning
Background: Efforts to better understand the phenomenon of the ‘bottom’, the beginning of the
process of turning away from alcohol, are important for both theoretical and practical goals. The
conservation of resources theory by Hobfoll may represent a suitable framework to base these
attempts around. Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the role of resource loss in completing
alcoholism treatment on the basis of Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory. Methods: The study
included 86 patients undergoing inpatient alcoholism treatment. An assessment of resource loss and
gain during the previous year, as well as of the decisional balance regarding the pros and cons of
drinking alcohol, took place at the beginning of therapy. Results: The results of hierarchical binary
logistic regression confirmed that resource loss was the only significant predictor of therapy
completion, after adjustment for decisional balance, demographics and basic clinical data.
Additionally, gender moderated the relationship between resource gain and therapy completion: while
an increase in gain was related to a decreased chance of completing therapy in men, the opposite
effect was noted in women. Conclusions: Resource loss has more influence than decisional balance
in predicting therapy completion, which can be translated into clinically valid recommendations
based on gender differences.