[Patterns of alcohol consumption: a cluster analytic study of the Trierer Alcoholism Inventory (TAI) in an Austrian clinical sample].

OBJECTIVE

The Trierer Alcoholism Inventory (TAI) assesses differential patterns of alcohol consumption in patients with alcohol use disorders. Previous cluster analytic studies with the TAI identified four distinct patterns of alcohol consumption. The aim of the present study was to replicate the cluster profiles of the TAI in an Austrian clinical sample. The discriminative validity of the TAI cluster profiles was evaluated with several external independent socio-demographic and clinical variables. A practical method to determine the similarity between an individual and a group profile of the TAI was also explored.

METHODS

The TAI was administered to N = 238 patients who were admitted to an inpatient unit for alcohol withdrawal. Data were submitted to k-means cluster analysis with different starting partitions. Different cluster solutions were compared with regard to their stability, similarity (Rand-Index) and the consistency of the within-cluster profiles.

RESULTS

A five-cluster solution was found to be stable. The five cluster represent different and distinctive alcohol consumption patterns: 1) Socially integrated alcohol consumption; 2) Excessive consumption, loss of self-control and severe psychosomatic consequences of long-term alcohol abuse; 3) Isolated and hidden alcohol consumption, 4) Inconspicuous alcohol consumption; 5) Residual cluster of non-classifiable cases. The discriminative validity of the cluster solution was supported with regard to age, gender, unemployment, living-situation, problems with partner, symptoms of psychological distress, and number of withdrawal treatments within the last five years.

CONCLUSIONS

The study found further evidence for distinct patterns of alcohol consumption as measured by the Trierer Alcoholism Inventory. The development of clinical treatment concepts for patients with alcohol use disorders can be expected to benefit from the information obtained by the administration of the TAI-typology of alcohol consumption patterns.