Assessing shared psychological constructs as risk factors in comorbid PTSD-AUD combat-exposed male veterans

PTSD and AUD are frequently comorbid post-trauma outcomes. Much remains unknown about shared risk factors as PTSD and AUD work tends to be conducted in isolation. We examined how self-report measures of distress tolerance (DT), experiential avoidance (EA), and drinking motives (DM) differed across diagnostic groups in white, male combat-exposed veterans (n = 77). A MANOVA indicated a significant difference in constructs by group, F (5, 210) = 4.7, p = <.001. Follow-up ANOVAs indicated DM subscales (Coping: F (3,82) = 21.3; Social: F (3,82) = 13.1; Enhancement: F (3,82) = 10.4; ps = <.001) and EA (F (3,73) = 7.8, p < .001) differed by groups but not DT. Post hoc comparisons indicated that mean scores of the comorbid and AUD-only groups were significantly higher than controls for all DM subscales (all ps < .01). EA scores were significantly higher for the comorbid as compared to control (p < .001) and PTS-only (p = .007) groups. Findings support shared psychological factors in a comorbid PTSD-AUD population.