Loneliness and Alcohol and Other Drug Use Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis

There is currently no understanding of how loneliness may change throughout AOD treatment. The aims of the current study were to determine: 1) changes to loneliness once exiting AOD treatment; and 2) whether positive recovery outcomes were associated with decreased loneliness over time. Participants (N = 213; Mage = 38.81, SD = 10.26, range 20–71) were recruited from seven Australian residential AOD treatment services. Data was collected while participants were accessing treatment, and again at 3- and 6- months post discharge. Measures assessed loneliness, prior mental health diagnoses, abstinence, recovery, refusal self-efficacy, and cravings. A linear mixed-effects regression was used to examine the relationship between recovery outcomes and loneliness over three timepoints. Loneliness was high at baseline and remained high at 3- and 6-months. Positive indicators of recovery were found to predict lower loneliness over time, F(18, 765,270.40) = 17.95, p < .001). A past mental health diagnosis was associated with higher loneliness (EMM = 8.35, SE = .20) over time compared to no diagnosis. Findings suggest that indicators of better AOD recovery predict reduced loneliness over time. Since loneliness is also a known trigger for AOD use, it may be important for the AOD treatment sector to explicitly target loneliness as part of their service delivery models.