Factor Structure of CIWA-Ar in Alcohol Withdrawal

Objective. To identify the underlying factor structure of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, as measured with CIWA-Ar. Methods. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the items of CIWA-Ar. On 201 alcohol-dependent male patients seeking treatment for alcohol withdrawal at 36 hours of abstinence. Res...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bakhla, Ajay Kumar, Khess, Christoday R. J., Verma, Vijay, Hembram, Mahesh, Praharaj, Samir Kumar, Soren, Subhas
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2014
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006624/
Description
Summary:Objective. To identify the underlying factor structure of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, as measured with CIWA-Ar. Methods. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the items of CIWA-Ar. On 201 alcohol-dependent male patients seeking treatment for alcohol withdrawal at 36 hours of abstinence. Results. A three-factor solution was obtained that accounted for 68.74% of total variance. First factor had loading from four items (34.34% variance), second factor also had four items (24.25% variance), and the third had two items (10.04% variance). Conclusions. Factor analysis reveals the existence of multidimensionality of alcohol withdrawal as measured with CIWA-Ar and we found three factors that can be named as delirious, autonomic and nonspecific factors.