Schematic functioning, regulation of satisfaction of psychological needs and difficulties in emotional regulation: a study comparing different levels of alcohol consumption.

Abstract

It is estimated that 76.3 million people have problems related to alcohol consumption and that 2.5 million die from it every year. Therefore it is urgent to study the phenomenon, namely, the psychological factors related to alcohol consumption. The present study aims to study regulation of satisfaction of psychological needs, difficulties in emotional regulation and schematic functioning in different levels of alcohol consumption. The literature has demonstrated a significant association between those variables and a good ability to predict psychopathological symptomatology. Thus, we intended to study if those associations were maintained in individuals with alcohol dependence and how they differed in individuals with different levels of alchol consumption. Two samples were compared. A clinical sample with alcohol dependence gathered at several inpatient treatment centers and a general population sample, recruited online using the qualtrics platform. Regulation of satisfaction of psychological needs, difficulties in emotional regulation, schematic functioning and psychopatolgical symptoms were measured using self-report measures to both samples. Severity of dependence was assessed in the clinical sample with SADQ, while level of alcohol consumption was assessed in the general population sample using AUDIT. Preliminary data suggests there is a strong presence of early maladaptive schemes, difficulties in emotion regulation and satisfaction of psychological needs, being interrelated in the prediction of symptomatology in the clinical sample. Schematic functioning seems to be the most explanatory variable of psychological symptomatology. These findings may be potentially relevant to case-conceptualization and provide clinical clues to psychological intervention.

Speakers

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