With orders from the top, the Marine Corps’ inspector general is canvassing the service to see how well commands are enforcing rules on alcohol use among Marines. As a result, more Marines who get in trouble for booze-induced infractions could wind up in alcohol-abuse treatment. The survey was prompted by the discovery that many Marines caught driving under the influence are not being screened by substance abuse control officers. Assistant Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford ordered the assessment and tasked the Inspector General’s Office and Manpower and Reserve Affairs with looking for other discrepancies regarding alcohol-abuse policies....

A new report based on a national survey shows that only 1.2 percent of the nation’s more than 7.4 million adults aged 21 to 64 with an untreated alcohol abuse disorder perceive they could benefit from treatment. The report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in conjunction with National Alcohol Screening Day, April 7, highlights the need to raise awareness about adult problem drinking, how to identify when someone has a problem, how to confront a problem drinker and how to get help. The report focuses on those who met the diagnostic criteria for either alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence...

A new system that ranks drugs on the basis of harm caused to both the user and others places alcohol as the most harmful drug, above heroin and crack. The scale, developed by drug experts led by Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London, is published online in The Lancet. Drugs including alcohol and tobacco products are a major cause of harms to individuals and society. To provide better guidance to policy makers in health, policing, and social care, the harms that drugs cause need to be properly assessed. This task is not easy because of the wide range of ways in which drugs can cause harm, the researchers say. When Professor Nutt...

In a systematic review of current evidence published in this week’s PLoS Medicine, the authors—Jim McCambridge from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK, and colleagues—conclude that there is enough evidence to recommend that reducing drinking during late adolescence is likely to be important for preventing long-term adverse consequences of drinking, as well as protecting against more immediate harms. Although there is an urgent need for better studies in this area, research to date provides some evidence that high alcohol consumption in late adolescence often continues into adulthood and is associated...

Doctors who drink more themselves are more liberal in their advice to patients on alcohol consumption. They set higher thresholds for what is harmful, and while men who are heavy drinkers get to continue drinking, women are often advised to stop altogether, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.   Researchers at the University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy have for the first time looked into how family doctors’ own drinking habits affect their advice to patients. The study, which took the form of a questionnaire for doctors in the county of Skaraborg, revealed that those...

A person who drinks too much alcohol may be able to perform complicated tasks, such as dancing, carrying on a conversation or even driving a car, but later have no memory of those escapades. These periods of amnesia, commonly known as “blackouts,” can last from a few minutes to several hours.Now, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, neuroscientists have identified the brain cells involved in blackouts and the molecular mechanism that appears to underlie them. They report July 6, 2011, in The Journal of Neuroscience, that exposure to large amounts of alcohol does not necessarily kill brain cells as once was...

Alcoholic liver disease is damage to the liver and its function due to alcohol abuse. See also: Ascites Cirrhosis Alcoholism Bleeding varices Hepatic encelphalopathy Reference from A.D.A.M. ALTERNATIVE NAMES Liver disease due to alcohol; Cirrhosis or hepatitis – alcoholic; Laennec’s cirrhosis CAUSES » Alcoholic liver disease usually occurs after years of excessive drinking. The longer the alcohol use and the more alcohol that was consumed, the greater the likelihood of developing liver disease. Acute alcoholic hepatitis can result from binge drinking. It may be life-threatening if severe. People who drink...

— In order to develop new medications for alcoholism, researchers need to understand how alcohol acts on the brain’s reward system. A previously unknown mechanism has been shown to block the rewarding effects of alcohol on the brain, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Research has shown that the glycine receptor in the brain’s reward system plays a role in the development of alcoholism. This receptor normally acts as a brake on the brain’s communication, and has previously been shown to be heavily implicated in the transmission of pain and in epilepsy. However, this thesis and previous...

For the budding alcoholic/addict in recovery, relapse is all too often a nanosecond away. Even for the well-seasoned soul who has practiced a clean and sober lifestyle for many years, relapse may be in a deep, dormant sleep but can be aroused with a touch of a feather. Over a year ago, I wrote a blog entitled “Is Relapse Part of Recovery?” in which I explored the four broad psychological triggers that the recovering alcoholic/addict faces: fear, resentment, expectations and boredom. In my new book “Reclaim Your Life: You and the Alcoholic/Addict” I have a chapter entitled “77 Warning Signs of Relapse”...

Alcohol cheers some people while it pushes others into depression. This could predict who is likely to have a problem with drinks – those who get high on alcohol are far more likely to become addicted. Though often described as a depressant, alcohol contains a mixture of stimulant and sedative effects, with some treating it as a social lubricant and others as a downer. It had been suggested that people who get less affected by alcohol drink more heavily to compensate, the journal Archives of General Psychiatry reports. But the new study from the University of Chicago suggests heavy drinkers are actually more sensitive to the euphoric...