Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Childhood Trauma are Associated with Alcohol Use Severity: A Comparison with Healthy Volunteers

Objective: Emotion regulation difficulties and the effect of childhood traumas on the etiology of alcohol use disorder are an important topic in the literature. This study aimed to evaluate patients with alcohol use disorder in terms of emotional control and childhood trauma and the difficulty in trauma and emotion regulation as a risk factor. Methods: In this study, 37 patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 37 healthy volunteers were included. The participants were assessed with a 35-item sociodemographic data form, Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ-C), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-28), and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). All participants were interviewed based on DSM-5. Results: Participants with AUD had more difficulty in regulating emotions in all areas. clarity, awareness, impulse, nonacceptance, objectives, and strategies were deteriorated (p < 0.05). Patients with AUD had more childhood traumas. All trauma types, especially physical neglect and emotional abuse were more common in participants with AUD. Assessment of the traumas and emotion regulation revealed that emotional abuse increased the risk of AUD by 1.6 times (95% CI 1.025–2.801) and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies are linked to addiction severity.Conclusion: The maladaptive emotional strategies of patients with AUD were worse than those of healthy volunteers. Patients with AUD experienced more childhood traumas. Particularly, emotional abuse increased the risk of AUD. As a result, childhood traumas were more severe in patients with AUD, and they adversely affected emotion regulation strategies and increased addiction severity.