INTRODUCTION:

India is one of the largest producers of alcohol in the world and there has been a steady increase in its production over the last 15 years, according to new statistics. More than two - thirds of the total alcohol beverage consumption in the region is in India, according to figures in the newly - compiled Alcohol Atlas of India. The consumption is 2 liters per person a year. The statistics show that alcoholism increases suicidal tendencies, incidents of domestic violence and affects the ability of a person to concentrate at work.

The problem of excessive alcohol consumption is a major cause of public health concern in most countries of the world today .Heavy consumption, which involves for more than dependence, can cause undoubted misery to individual, who is usually affected by other physical, psychological, and social disabilities as well. Life in the family of someone with a drinking problem becomes increasingly restricted. Excessive intake of alcohol leads to a stage of darkness where the person involved loses control over his mental faculties and he may be a source of danger to himself and for others. Alcohol is associated with a substantial proportion of human violence. There are a considerable number of anecdotal reports and research findings that suggest that individuals who are married to alcoholics have poor overall physical and mental health.

Alcoholism also has negative effects on the spouse of an alcoholic. The spouse may have feelings of hatred, self- pity, and avoidance of social contacts, may suffer exhaustion and become physically or mentally ill .Very often the spouse has to perform the roles of both parents. Family responsibilities shift from two parents to one parent. As a result, the non - alcoholic parent may be inconsistent, demanding, and often neglect the children, going in exchange for keeping the family together.

Codependency and alcoholism go together because they are two sides of a dysfunctional relationship that reinforce each other. Alcoholism was classified as a disease nearly 50 years ago and has been well established as a disorder of the mind and body. Alcoholics have lost the choice of whether to drink or not and continue to do so despite increasingly severe consequences to their health, job, relationships and freedom. Codependency often surrounds the alcoholic and is displayed by loved ones, friends and even coworkers who find themselves being continually compromised by a problem drinker. ¹⁰

Enhancing a general understanding of these complex family behaviors is a great contribution to the realm of public education. Health care professionals should be able to understand the concept of codependency and depression and treat for balancing family dynamics as well as how these concepts are understood by codependent patients and their families in treatment.

The researcher has personal experience and came across the problems faced by the family of alcoholics. He personally knows one family in which the wife is fully dependent on her husband who is an alcoholic. The wife had developed signs of depression later. During the community postings also the researcher found certain families in which the wives are facing lot of psychosocial problems which can lead to depression. This made the researcher to study about the co - dependency and depressive symptoms among care givers of alcoholics.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

A descriptive co relation study to assess the co –dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics in selected in hospital, Erode.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To assess the Co–Dependency among wives of alcoholics

2. To assess the depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics

3. To find the co- relation between co – dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics

4. To find out the association between co – dependency and selected demographic variables

5. To find out the association between depressive symptoms and selected demographic variables

HYPOTHESES:

H₁There will be a significant co- relation between co – dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics

H₂There will be a significant association between co – dependency and selected demographic variables

H₃There will be a significant association between depressive symptoms and selected demographic variables

ASSUMPTIONS:

· The wives may depend psychologically on their alcoholic spouse

· Wives of the alcoholic spouse may experience some depressive symptoms.

· The level of codependency may have major impact on the depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics

DELIMITATIONS:

The study was limited to women who have

1. Assess the Co –dependency and depressive symptoms

2. Living with their alcoholic spouse for minimum 2 years

3. Valli Hospital, Erode and Nalandha De addiction Centre, Erode

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Research Approach-Descriptive co relational approach” was selected for the present study.

Research Design:

The “Descriptive co relational design” to co relates the co dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics in selected hospital, Erode.

Setting of the study:

The study was conducted in VK Hospital and Nalandha De addiction Centre Hospital, Erode.

Sample:

The wives of alcoholic’s patients attending the outpatient department of VK Hospital and Nalandha De addiction Centre Hospital, Erode.

Sample Size:

The total sample size was 30

Sampling Technique:

Non probability purposive sampling technique

Development of the Tool:

There are 3 sections of tools being used. They are;

SECTION A:

It consists of demographic characteristics like: Age, Religion, Type of family, Type of marriage, Duration of married life, Number of children, Education, Occupation, Family income, Duration of alcohol consumption by the husband and Alcoholic history in parents

SECTION B:

Codependency scale:

SECTION C:

Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES - D)

Method of Data Collection:

· “Interview method” is selected to collect the required data for this present study.

· Prior to data collection, permission was obtained from the Managing Director of VK Hospital and Nalandha De addiction Centre Hospital, Erode.

· The data was collected from 24/03/2014 to 31/03/2014 for the period of one week.

The techniques followed during data collection:

· The subjects made to be comfortable and relaxed.

· The general information was collected such as Age, Religion, Type of family, Type of marriage, Duration of married life, Number of children, Education, Occupation, Family income, Duration of alcohol consumption by the husband and Alcoholic history in parents

· Then collected the information related to reasons for Co dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholic patients.

Plan for data analysis:

The data were analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics

· Back ground information of the subject were described by percentage distribution

· Mean, Standard deviation, Mean percentage and co efficient of co relation was used to find out the Co- relation between co – dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics

· Chi-square test was used to find out association between co – dependency and depressive symptoms with their selected demographic variables

RESULTS:

Section A:

The study findings shows that, 36% of wives were in the age group of 41 -50 years, highest percentage (93%) of wives were Hindus, similar percentage (70%, 70% and 70%) of wives were belongs to joint family, belongs to Conjugal marriage and consuming alcohol above 6 years respectively. Fifty percent of wives were living above 10 years, 47 % of wives had 3 children’s, 36 percent of them had secondary education and 64 percent of them house wife. However 40% of them family income belongs to 10,000 – 15,000 and most (84%) of them history of parents alcoholics.

Section B: Assess the Co – Dependency among wives of alcoholics:

Level of co dependency among wives of alcoholics depicts that, most (90%) of them were high co dependency and only 10 percent of them had moderate co dependency. It shows that most of them were high co dependency.

Fig.1 Bar Diagram showing the percentage distribution of wives of alcoholics according level of co dependency

SECTION C Assess the depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics:

Level of depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics depicts that, most (94%) of them were mild depression and similar percentage (3% and 3%) of them no depression and major depression respectively. It shows that most of them were mild depression.

\Fig. 2 Bar Diagram showing the percentage distribution of wives of alcoholics according level of depression

SECTION D Co- relation between co – dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics:

Table 1Mean, SD and mean percentage of co – dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics

Wives of alcoholics	Max. score	Mean	SD	Mean percentage	r’ value
Co – dependency	70	56.8	7.31	81	0.9 P < 0.05 significant
Depressive symptoms	80	37.8	8.01	47	0.9 P < 0.05 significant

Co – dependency and depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics scores reveals that, co – dependency mean score was (56.8 ± 7.31), which is 81% whereas in depressive symptoms mean score was (37.8 ± 8.01), which is 47%. It shows that wives of alcoholics had high dependency. There was a significant relationship which reveals that when co – dependency level increases, depressive symptoms level increases. Hence, there was a highly (0.9) positive relationship between these variables.

SECTION E-Find out the association between Co – dependency and depressive symptoms with their selected demographic variables:

It reveals that there was no significant association between the Co – dependency and depressive symptoms scores of wives of alcoholics when compared to Age, Religion, Type of family, Type of marriage, Duration of married life, Number of children, Education, Occupation, Family income, Duration of alcohol consumption by the husband and Alcoholic history in parents, (P > 0.05). There was significant association between the Co – dependency and depressive symptoms scores of wives of alcoholics when compared to Education, Occupation and Family income, (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION:

From the findings of the study it can be concluded that, most (90%) of them were high co dependency and most (94%) of them were mild depression. Co – dependency mean score was (56.8 ± 7.31), which is 81% and depressive symptoms mean score was (37.8 ± 8.01), which is 47%. Co-relation between co – dependency and depressive symptoms scores was (0.9) highly positive relationship between these variables. No significant association between the co – dependency and depressive symptoms scores of wives of alcoholics with their demographic variables, (P > 0.05).

RECOMMENDATION:

· A similar study can be replicated on a large sample in a different setting to strengthen the findings.

· Further research could be carried out to identify the prevalence of depression and alcohol dependency among wives of alcoholics

· An interventional study can be conducted.

REFERENCE:

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5. Ranjana Tiwari. Presumptive stressful life events among spouse of alcoholics. Indian journal of social science researches 2010 mar;7(1):41- 46.Wesley. L. Ruby. Nursing theories and models. 2nd edition. Pennsylvania: Spring house publications; 1994.

Received on 16.07.2014 Modified on 10.08.2014

Int. J. Adv. Nur. Management 2(3): July-Sept.,2014; Page 143-146