Abstract
The present study examined metacognitions in problem drinkers and a community sample. A sample of 60 problem drinkers and 84 individuals from the general population were compared on the following measures: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire 30, Quantity Frequency Scale and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Mann–Whitney U-tests, logistic regression analysis and hierarchical regression analyses were performed on the data. Mann–Whitney U-tests revealed that metacognitions, anxiety, depression and drinking scores were significantly higher for problem drinkers than for the general population. The logistic regression analysis indicated that beliefs about cognitive confidence and beliefs about the need to control thoughts were independent predictors of a classification as a problem drinker over and above negative emotions. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses on the combined samples showed that beliefs about cognitive confidence, and beliefs about the need to control thoughts, independently predicted both alcohol use and problem drinking scores. These results add to the argument that metacognitive theory is relevant in understanding excessive and problematic alcohol use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Babor, T. F., de la Fuente, J. R., Saunders, J., & Grant, M. (1992). The alcohol use disorders identification test: guidelines for use in primary healthcare. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
Beck, A. T. (2005). The current state of cognitive therapy: a 40-year retrospective. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 953–959.
Beck, A. T., Wright, F. D., Newman, C. F., & Liese, B. S. (1993). Cognitive therapy of substance abuse. New York: Guildford.
Bouman, T. K., & Meijer, K. J. (1999). A preliminary study of worry and metacognitions in hypochondriasis. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 6, 96–101. Special issue, Metacognition and cognitive behaviour therapy. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Brown, R. A., & Ramsey, S. E. (2000). Addressing comorbid depressive symptomatology in alcohol treatment. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31, 418–422.
Caci, H., Bayle, F. J., Mattei, V., Dossios, C., Philippe, R., & Boyer, P. (2003). How does the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale measure anxiety and depression in healthy subjects? Psychiatry Research, 118, 89–99.
Cahalan, D., Cisin, I., & Crossley, H. (1969). American drinking practices: a National Survey of Drinking Behaviours and Attitudes. Rutgers Centre for Alcohol Studies, Monograph no. 6, New Brunswick.
Cartwright-Hatton, S., & Wells, A. (1997). Beliefs about worry and intrusions: the meta-cognitions questionnaire and its correlates. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 11, 279–315.
Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. Heimber, M. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: diagnosis, assessment and treatment. New York: Guilford.
Conger, J. (1956). Reinforcement theory and the dynamics of alcoholism. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 17, 296–305.
Duncan, D. F. (1974). Drug abuse as a coping mechanism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 724.
Emmelkamp, P. M. G., & Aardema, A. (1999). Metacognitions, specific obsessive–compulsive beliefs and obsessive compulsive behaviour. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 6, 139–145. Special issue, Metacognition and cognitive behaviour therapy. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906–911.
Helzer, J. E., & Pryzbeck, T. R. (1988). The co-occurrence of alcoholism with other psychiatric disorders in the general population and its impact on treatment. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 49(3), 219–224.
Herrmann, C. (1997). International experiences with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale—a review of validation data and clinical results. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 42(1), 17–41.
Hester, R. K., & Miller, W. R. (1995). Handbook of alcoholism treatment approaches: effective alternatives. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon.
Kushner, M. G., Sher, K. J., & Beitman, B. D. (1990). The relation between alcohol problems and anxiety disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147(6), 685–695.
Levenson, R., Sher, K., Grossman, L., Newman, J., & Newlin, D. (1980). Alcohol and stress response-dampening: pharmacological effects, expectancy, and tension reduction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 528–538.
Monti, P. M., Kadden, R., Rohsenow, D. J., Cooney, N., & Abrams, D. (2002). Treating alcohol dependence: a coping skills training guide (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Morrison, A. P., Wells, A., & Nothard, S. (2000). Cognitive factors in predisposition to auditory and visual hallucinations. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39, 67–78.
Mykletun, A., Stordal, E., & Dahl, A. A. (2001). Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale: factor structure, item analyses and internal consistency. British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 540–544.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (2000). Alcoholism: getting the facts.
Nelson, T. O., Graf, A., Dunlosky, J., Marlatt, A., Walker, D., & Luce, K. (1998). Effect of acute alcohol intoxication on recall and on judgments of learning during the acquisition of new information. In G. Mazzoni, & T. O. Neslon (Eds.), Metacognition and cognitive neuropsychology, monitoring and control processes (pp. 161–180). Mahwah: LEA.
Oei, T. P. S., & Baldwin, A. R. (1994). Expectancy theory: a two-process model of alcohol use and abuse. Journal for the Studies of Alcohol, 55, 525–534.
Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (2003). An empirical test of a clinical metacognitive model of rumination and depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 261–273.
Project MATCH Research Group. (1997). Matching alcoholism treatments to client heterogeneity: project MATCH posttreatment drinking outcomes. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 58, 7–29.
Reynolds, M., & Wells, A. (1999). The Thought Control Questionnaire—psychometric properties in a clinical sample, and relationships with PTSD and depression. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1089–1099.
Spada, M. M., & Wells, A. (2005). Metacognitions, emotion and alcohol use. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 12(2), 150–155.
Steele, C. M., & Josephs, R. A. (1990). Alcohol myopia: its prized and dangerous effects. American Psychologist, 45, 921–933.
Teasdale, J. D., & Barnard, P. J. (1993). Affect, cognition and change: re-modelling depressive thought. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wells, A. (2000). Emotional disorders and metacognition: innovative cognitive therapy. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Wells, A., & Carter, K. (2001). Further tests of a cognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder: metacognitions and worry in GAD, panic disorder, social phobia, depression, and non patients. Behavior Therapy, 32, 85–102.
Wells, A., & Cartwright-Hatton, S. (2004). A short form of the meta-cognitions questionnaire: properties of the MCQ-30. Behavior Therapy, 42, 385–396.
Wells, A., & Matthews, G. (1994). Attention and emotion. A clinical perspective. Hove, UK: Erlbaum.
Wilson, G. T. (1988). Alcohol and anxiety. Behavioural Research and Therapy, 26(5), 369–381.
Zigmond, A. S., & Snaith, R. P. (1983). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 361–370.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Spada, M.M., Zandvoort, M. & Wells, A. Metacognitions in Problem Drinkers. Cogn Ther Res 31, 709–716 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9066-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9066-1