Serbian and Austrian alcohol-dependent patients: a comparison of two samples regarding therapeutically relevant clinical features.

AIMS: To support the Serbian Expert Board in setting up reimbursement for modern pharmacotherapeutic support, we compared a Serbian sample of alcohol-dependent patients with an Austrian sample, in order to detect differences that might inhibit the introduction of anti-craving medications in Serbia.
METHODS: One hundred and twenty-seven (116 males) alcohol-dependent patients in Serbia and 136 in Austria (78 males) were enrolled consecutively from January 2011 to March 2012 and were assessed using the Lesch alcoholism typology instrument (LAT).
RESULTS: Age of onset was slightly higher in the Austrian sample (28.5 vs. 30.0; P = 0.10). The Serbian sample showed a higher rate of anxiety disorders than the Austrian sample (89.8 vs. 26.5%, P ≤ 0.0001). Suicidal tendencies, independent of alcohol intake or withdrawal syndrome, were higher in the Austrian sample (1.6 vs. 13.2% P ≤ 0.0001). There was no difference between the two samples in Lesch-Type IV (26 vs 28); there was a slight excess in the Serbian sample of Type I (15 vs. 10). In Austria, significantly more Type II patients (32 vs. 52) had been included, while the Serbian sample comprised significantly more Type III patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Austrian and Serbian patients are quite similar, without any showing any factor that would detract from the potential value of modern anti-craving medications in Serbia. The differences in anxiety disorders might be due to the 1990s war and should be investigated further.