Diagnostic Prevalence of Common Psychiatric Comorbidities of Alcohol Use Disorders in India: a Systematic Review

The diagnostic prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in Indian individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) has important implications for clinical decision making and for cross-cultural psychiatry research. Here, we present a systematic review of comorbid mood and anxiety disorders in Indian patients with AUDs. We find rates of comorbid mood disorders ranging from 6 to 65% (estimated overall effect from a linear random effects model of 18.0%, 95% CI [5.6, 45.1]) and rates of comorbid anxiety disorders ranging from 0 to 30% (estimated overall effect of 2.4%, 95% CI [0.9, 5.8]) in Indian populations. These findings are placed in the context of estimated population prevalence of comorbid mood and anxiety disorders in US adults with AUDs who have recently sought treatment of 40.7 (95% CI [32.6, 48.7]) and 33.4% (95% CI [25.2, 41.6]), respectively. Potential causes of these differences include differences in diagnosis, in cultural norms around alcohol use and the acceptance of mental health care, and in the types of studies being compared. The findings highlight the importance of systematic assessments of treatment outcomes in local clinical populations as a complement to an understanding of the medical literature from other cultural contexts.