The implications for the biological and sociodynamic causal explanations of attitudes toward alcohol-dependent patients

Abstract

This study tested whether sole neurobiological or sociodynamic explanations of alcohol dependence altered respondents' attitudes toward alcohol-dependent patients. We investigated the effect of information leaflets on 444 participants: one group received an information leaflet with a biological explanation of AD; the other received a leaflet with a sole sociodynamic explanation of AD. A third, control group did not receive any leaflet. Afterwards, all three groups completed a questionnaire regarding their attitudes toward ADPs and their opinions of the underlying causes of AD. We found a significant group difference with regard to participants' agreement with a neurobiological explanation of AD. Moreover, respondents in the neurobiological intervention group considered the characteristics of ADP to be significantly more positive than those in the sociodynamic group. Furthermore, they were significantly less likely to accept AD as a self-inflicted disease. Correlation analysis revealed associations between accepting the sociodynamic disease model and all of the stigmatization dimensions tested in our questionnaire. In summary, stigmatization toward ADP was closely associated with the agreement with sociodynamic origins of AD in this study.

Keywords: Alcohol dependence; Attitudes; Disease models; Framing; Neurobiological and sociodynamic explanations; Stigmatization.