Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Research Article

Eating Behaviors, Body Composition and Risk of Relapse among Persons withdrawing from Substance Abuse: A 3-months Follow-up Study

¹ Nutrition and Dietetics Department, School of Health Professions, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland,Geneva, Switzerland

² Institute of Social sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

³ Department of Health and Social Services, Public health Service, Switzerland

⁴ Division of Addictology, Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland

⁵ Department of Community Medicine, Primary Care and Emergency Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland

⁶ Dependencies Unit, Department of Community Medicine, Primary Care and Emergency Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland

Corresponding Author:

Maaike Kruseman
Nutrition and Dietetics Department
School of Health Professions
University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland
Rue des Caroubiers 25, 1225 Carouge
Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: +41223883456
Fax: +4122388 3450
E-mail: maaike.kruseman@hesge.ch

Received date: January 07, 2014; Accepted date: April 17, 2014; Published date: April 30, 2014

Citation: Kruseman M, Berchtold A, Sangin C, Khazaal Y, Manghi R, et al. (2014) Eating Behaviors, Body Composition and Risk of Relapse among Persons withdrawing from Substance Abuse: A 3-months Follow-up Study. J Addict Res Ther S10:001. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.S10-001

Copyright: © 2014 Kruseman M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: To describe eating behaviors and body composition before, during and after substance abuse withdrawal, and to assess if these factors were related with withdrawal outcome.

Methods: This was a three month follow-up study examining eating behaviors (measured by validated questionnaires and interview), substance use (assessed with Addiction Severity Index) anthropometry (weight, height and bioimpedance for body composition), medical conditions and psycho-social environment (recorded from medical files and Addiction Severity Index) of 117 patients enrolling in a detoxification program at the University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland. Characteristics at baseline and after one month were compared according to patients’ outcome. Variables showing a significant association with relapse were entered in a multivariate logistic regression

Results: Most patients were men (84, 71%), and detoxified from alcohol (95, 81%). Relapse rates were 27% after 1 month and 45% after 3 months. Eating disorders were rare but 19% scored high on shape concern scale, 35% experienced nibbling, 20% compulsive night eating and 14% binge episodes, 24% displayed lower than normal fat-free mass and 40% had higher than normal fat mass. Bivariate analysis showed that low nutritional status (low BMI, or low fat mass or low fat free mass), was associated with a decreased risk of relapse. Withdrawal from drugs, higher tobacco consumption and higher severity index for legal area were associated with relapse. These determinants showed no effect on outcome in a multivariate analysis.

Conclusion: Problematic eating behaviors were common in this group, whereas eating disorders were rare. Relapse rate was high. No variable was related with relapse at multivariate level. As in general population, overweight and high fat mass were common among persons abusing substances. BMI was a poor indicator of their nutritional status. Our study suggests attention should be given to patients’ eating behaviors, weight and shape preoccupation during substance withdrawal and follow-up.

Keywords