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Revision as of 21:32, 26 October 2006 by 140.144.175.244 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Alcoholism is the consumption of or preoccupation with alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the alcoholic's normal personal, family, social, or work life. The chronic alcohol consumption caused by alcoholism can result in psychological and physiological disorders. Alcoholism is one of the world's most costly drug use problems; with the exception of nicotine addiction, alcoholism is more costly to most countries than all other drug use problems combined. Alcoholism is not a psychiatric diagnosis. In countries that use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) put forth by the American Psychiatric Association, recognizable diagnoses include Alcohol Abuse, Alcohol Intoxication, Alcohol Dependence, and Alcohol Withdrawal.
While alcohol use is required to trigger alcoholism, the biological mechanism of alcoholism is unknown. For most people, moderate alcohol consumption poses little danger of addiction. Other factors must exist for alcohol use to develop into alcoholism. These factors may include a person's social environment, emotional health and genetic predisposition. In addition, an alcoholic can develop multiple forms of addiction to alcohol simultaneously such as psychological, metabolic, and neurochemical. Each type of addiction must be treated individually for an alcoholic to fully recover.
Terminology
Many terms are applied to a drinker's relationship with alcohol. Use, misuse, heavy use, abuse, addiction, and dependence are all common labels used to describe drinking habits, but the actual meaning of these words can vary greatly depending upon the context in which they are used. Even within the medical field, the definition can vary between areas of specialization. The introduction of politics and religion further muddles the issue and exacerbates ambiguity.
Use refers to simple use of a substance. An individual who drinks any alcoholic beverage is using alcohol.
Misuse and heavy use do not have standard definitions, but suggest consumption of alcohol beyond the point where it causes physical, social, or moral harm to the drinker. Social and moral harm are highly subjective and therefore differ from individual to individual.
The term abuse has a variety of possible meanings. Within psychiatry, the DSM-IV has a specific definition involving a set of life circumstances which take place because of substance use. Within politics, abuse is often used to refer to the illegal use of any substance. Within the broad field of medicine, abuse sometimes refers to use of prescribed medication in excess of the prescribed dosage or to use of a prescription drug without a prescription. Within religion, abuse can refer to any use of a poorly regarded substance. The term is often avoided because it can cause confusion due to audiences that do not necessarily share a single definition.
Dependence also has multiple definitions, but is not as commonly used as abuse outside of the medical profession. Physical medicine considers dependence to be the body's physical adaptation to the persistent presence of alcohol. Psychological medicine considers dependence to be a person's mental reliance upon something to maintain their mental status quo. These two are occasionally differentiated as physical and psychological dependence.
The precise definition of addiction is debated, but in general it refers to any condition which causes a person to continue behaviors demonstrated as harmful to that person. For alcoholism, that behavior is the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Some conditions which contribute to alcoholism include physical dependence, neurochemical conditioning, and a person's perception that alcohol benefits them psychologically or socially.
Remission is often used to refer to a state where an alcoholic is no longer showing symptoms of alcoholism. American Psychiatric Association considers remission to be a condition where the physical and mental symptoms of alcoholism are no longer evident, regardless of whether or not the person is still drinking. They further subdivide those in remission into early or sustained, and partial or full. Others (most notably Alcoholics Anonymous) use the term exclusively to describe those who have completely stopped consumption of alcohol.