Alcohol Abuse | Addiction Treatment Strategies

Heavy alcohol consumption may be linked to a greater risk of developing lung cancer, while higher BMI and increased consumption of black tea and fruit are associated with lower risk of the deadly disease. In three separate studies presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), heavy alcohol consumption was related to increased risk of lung cancer, while specific ethnic groups, including African American men and Asian women, had slightly higher risks for lung cancer. Conversely, black tea consumption was shown to reduce lung cancer risk in nonsmoking women, while higher BMI and increased…

Physicians often fail to counsel their young adult patients about excessive alcohol use, according to a study led by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
 
NIAAA guidelines for low risk drinking call for men to drink no more than four drinks in a day and no more than 14 drinks per week. For women, the guidelines are three or fewer drinks per day and no more than seven drinks per week. Previous studies have shown that screening and brief interventions by health care providers — asking patients about alcohol use and advising them to reduce risky drinking — can…

Alcoholism (alcohol dependence) and alcohol abuse are two different forms of problem drinking.
Alcoholism occurs when a person shows signs of physical addiction to alcohol (for example, tolerance and withdrawal) and continues to drink, despite problems with physical health, mental health, and social, family, or job responsibilities. Alcohol may come to dominate the person’s life and relationships.
In alcohol abuse, a person’s drinking leads to problems, but not physical addiction.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
There is no known cause of alcohol abuse or alcoholism. The reason why some people drink in a responsible…

The drinking habits of a romantic partner’s friends are more likely to impact an adolescent’s future drinking than are the behaviors of an adolescent’s own friends or significant other, according to a new study in the October issue of the American Sociological Review.
 
“Dating someone whose friends are big drinkers is more likely to cause an adolescent to engage in dangerous drinking behaviors than are the drinking habits of the adolescent’s own friends or romantic partner,” said Derek Kreager, lead author of the study and an associate professor of crime, law, and justice at Pennsylvania State…

The Minnesota Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case involving the accuracy of a device that measures blood-alcohol levels in people who have been accused of driving under the influence (DUI).
According to The New York Times, about 4,000 people in the state have challenged the results of the breath-testing device used by law enforcement agencies. The state says the test results are correct, and can be used to punish people who are found to be driving with alcohol levels that are above the legal limit of .08.
A state judge this year ruled that while the source code for the device, called the, had errors, this did not affect the results’…

New recommendations issued by the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG) call for annual alcohol screening for women, and screening in the first trimester of pregnancy.
The guidelines state that for women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant, it is important for obstetrician-gynecologists to “give compelling and clear advice to avoid alcohol use, provide assistance for achieving abstinence, or provide effective contraception to women who require help.” ACOG’s new recommendations also note that health care providers should advise women that low-level consumption of alcohol in early pregnancy is not an indication…

— Stimulant drugs, which can increase energy and concentration, are widely abused by young adults. One such drug are amphetamines, which in addition to being widely accessible, has been shown in previous studies to have a significant relationship between its abuse and the amount of alcohol consumed.
The results will be published in the March 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
Craig R. Rush, senior author of the study and Professor of Behavioral Science, Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Kentucky, said that there is a direct epidemiological link…

The cost of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States in 2006 reached $223.5 billion or about $1.90 per drink, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost three–quarters of these costs were due to binge drinking, consuming four or more alcoholic beverages per occasion for women or five or more drinks per occasion for men, the report said.
Excessive alcohol consumption, or heavy drinking, is defined as consuming an average of more than one  alcoholic beverage per day for women, and an average of more than two alcoholic beverages per day for men, and any drinking by pregnant women or…

Administrative information can be useful for surveillance and understanding of alcohol-related harm in young people, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
 
Binge drinking and overconsumption of alcohol by young people is a growing issue in many countries. For example, in a 2009 study, almost 60% of young Canadians aged 15-24 reported having consumed alcohol in the previous month, with 22% reporting heaving drinking and 20% experiencing harm related to alcohol consumption. In Australia, 52% of serious road injuries and 32% of hospital admissions for 15-to-24-year-olds are related to alcohol…

Alcohol, to an adolescent, is often seen as a rite of passage. Many teenagers view alcohol (as well as other drugs) as a gateway to adulthood, but are often blissfully unaware of the damage that it can cause to their bodies. A new study of the effects of excessive alcohol and other drugs in adolescents has shown that both alcohol and marijuana overuse can cause serious detrimental effects on the development of the teenage mind.
 Results will be published in the January 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
“The effects of alcohol and marijuana use on cognition in…