Alcoholism | Addiction Treatment Strategies

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”…

CHAPEL HILL – Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have discovered a gene variant that may protect against alcoholism.
The variant, in a gene called CYP2E1, is associated with a person’s response to alcohol. For the ten to twenty percent of people that possess this variant, those first few drinks leave them feeling more inebriated than the rest of the human population, who harbor a different version of the gene.
Previous studies had shown that people who react strongly to alcohol were less likely to become alcoholics later in life, but the genetic basis of this finding was not clear….

Question: What do they mean when after being sober for years, if you start drinking again, your drinking will take off as though you haven’t been dry at all? In fact some say that it is worse, like if you were drinking all those dry years too. I am not planning to do this but a couple of members in my AA group described this, and I just wanted to check it out. I also wonder if you could explain why this happens?
Answer: Your friends represent the profound wisdom of AA. Over the years and with thousands and thousand of years in recovery, it has been observed that when the occasional person who, after many years of abstinence from alcohol,…

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri prosecutors say they believe a new state drunken driving law gives police the authority to take blood samples from reluctant suspects without a warrant.
?The guidance came during a presentation organized by the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services for law officers and prosecutors. Officials across the state received training Friday on handling drunken driving cases.
?Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson, who led the discussion during a session in Jefferson City, said the new drunken driving law seems to permit the taking of blood without a warrant under certain circumstances. However,…

Previous research regarding the association between alcohol consumption and dementia or cognitive impairment in later life suggests that mild to moderate alcohol consumption might be protective of dementia. However, most of the research has been conducted on subjects already rather elderly at the start of the follow-up.
A new study published in the December issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease addresses this problem with a follow-up of more than two decades.
The study, conducted at the University of Turku, University of Helsinki and National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland based on subjects from the Finnish Twin…

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Many of us with alcoholism and another mental illness – such as depression or bipolar – also struggle with what I call “episodic illiteracy.”
 
“Episodic illiteracy” is characterized by the inability to read the warning labels on the prescription bottles of our antidepressants and mood stabilizers. I am talking about the label with a line across a martini glass that says: DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES WHEN TAKING THIS MEDICATION or the label with the caricature of the droopy-eyed guy that says ALCOHOL MAY INTENSIFY THIS EFFECT.
 
We can read the other warning labels on the bottle,…

The Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) is widely used to assess adolescent drinking-related problems. The predictive power of RAPI scores, however, has not been examined on a longitudinal basis. A new study of RAPI has confirmed that not only is it an effective screening assessment, but that it may also — when administered in late adolescence — be predictive of alcohol diagnoses seven years later.
Results will be published in the May 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
“RAPI is a self-report questionnaire on the frequency with which an adolescent has…

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…

A study that examined the influence of LR in conjunction with other characteristics – like family history of AUDs and age of drinking onset – has found that LR is a unique risk factor for AUDs across adulthood and is not simply a reflection of a broader range of risk factors.
 “If a person needs more alcohol to get a certain effect, that person tends to drink more each time they imbibe,” explained Marc A. Schuckit, director of the Alcohol Research Center, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and corresponding author for the study.
“Other…

1. Alcoholism affects the entire family.
 
Living with a non-recovering alcoholic in the family can contribute to stress for all members of the family. Each member may be affected differently. Not all alcoholic families experience or react to this stress in the same way. The level of dysfunction or resiliency of the non-alcoholic spouse is a key factor in the effects of problems impacting children.
 
Children raised in alcoholic families have different life experiences than children raised in non-alcoholic families. Children raised in other types of dysfunctional families may have similar developmental losses and stressors as do…