The influence of social support on the occurrence of the withdrawal syndrome in alcohol abused patients.

The current investigation concerns the connection between social support given to alcohol abused patients and the occurrence of the withdrawal syndrome experienced by them, resulting from emotional and physical uneasiness. The independent variable, which was social support, has been formulated in a qualitative way, by referring to such subjective measures as: feeling of support, its perceived availability, and adequacy. The survey pattern was prepared on the basis of the claim of existence of the so-called main effect, i.e., direct relationship between social support and individual's psychophysical comfort. The investigated variables were measured using the following research tools: The Scale of Social Support and Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol-revised (CIWA-Ar). The results clearly show the dependence between the level of social support and the intensity of the withdrawal syndrome in alcohol abused patients. Apart from a cognitive value of the fact, it is worth paying attention to a possibility of its practical application.