There may be a way to switch off the urge for compulsive drinking, according to a new study in animal models led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).
Sep 06, 2016
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(Medical Xpress) -- Alcohol consumption can lead to those dreaded hangovers and even alcohol dependence. However, a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience has found a natural ingredient in the Asian tree Hovenia ...
Researchers have conducted a study in which mice voluntarily ate a dough containing THC, the primary psychoactive component in marijuana. That opens the door to additional studies that will help shed light on behavioral and ...
Aug 09, 2019
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(Medical Xpress)—Alcohol intoxication reduces communication between two areas of the brain that work together to properly interpret and respond to social signals, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at ...
Aug 29, 2013
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In an analysis of the epigenomes of people and mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the National Institutes of Health report that drinking alcohol may induce changes to a cholesterol-regulating gene.
Sep 20, 2017
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A very large percentage of the health burden in developed countries is caused by alcohol abuse. There is a large population vulnerable to alcohol dependency, which has a high rate of relapse during periods of abstinence, ...
A research group under the leadership of Linköping University Professor Markus Heilig has identified an enzyme whose production is turned off in nerve cells of the frontal lobe when alcohol dependence develops. The deficiency ...
Aug 30, 2016
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Excessive drinking is not only the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States, there is also a very strong genetic influence on the risk of developing alcohol dependence (AD). Given its serious public-health ...
Jun 15, 2012
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Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) found that men had greater pain relief than women after smoking marijuana.
Aug 18, 2016
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In Australia, almost 6,000 deaths a year can be attributed to alcohol, as well as around 400 hospitalisations a day. While drinking has declined in some segments of the population, with related stabilising of rates of death ...
Mar 02, 2018
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Alcohol dependence, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing an entity in which an individual uses alcohol despite significant areas of dysfunction, evidence of physical dependence, and/or related hardship. For a person to meet criteria for Alcohol Dependence (303.90) within the criteria listed in the DSM-IV, they must meet 3 of a total 7 possible criteria within a 12 month period.
The first 2 criteria are related to physiological dependence: tolerance and withdrawal. The 3rd and 4th criteria establish a pattern of losing control of drinking by breaking drinking rules or failing at attempts to quit or cut back. The 5th and 6th criteria are indicative of a progression of addiction as more and more time is spent on drinking and lifestyle changes result. The seventh criteria for Alcohol Dependence is met when a person continues to drink despite being aware that their drinking is causing or excacerbating some psychological or physiological problem(s).
It is important to note that because only 3 criteria of 7 are required in order to be diagnosed with Alcohol Dependence, not all meet the same criteria and therefore not all have the same symptoms and problems related to drinking. Not everyone with Alcohol Dependence, therefore, experiences physiological dependence. Alcohol Dependence is differentiated from alcohol abuse by the presence of symptoms such as tolerance and withdrawal. Both alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse are sometimes referred to by the less specific term alcoholism. However, many definitions of alcoholism exist, and only some are compatible with alcohol abuse.
There are two major differences between alcohol dependence and alcoholism as generally accepted by the medical community.
About 12% of American adults have had an alcohol dependence problem at some time in their life. Alcohol dependence is acknowledged by the American Medical Association as a disease because it has a characteristic set of signs and symptoms and a progressive course.
The contemporary definition of alcohol dependence is still based upon early research. There has been considerable scientific effort over the past three decades to identify and understand the core features of alcohol dependence. This work began in 1976 when the British psychiatrist Griffith Edwards and his American colleague Milton M. Gross collaborated to produce a formulation of what had previously been understood as ‘alcoholism’ – the alcohol dependence syndrome.
The alcohol dependence syndrome was seen as a cluster of seven elements that concur. It was argued that not all elements may be present in every case, but the picture is sufficiently regular and coherent to permit clinical recognition. The syndrome was also considered to exist in degrees of severity rather than as a categorical absolute. Thus, the proper question is not ‘whether a person is dependent on alcohol’, but ‘how far along the path of dependence has a person progressed’.
The following elements are the template for which the degree of dependence is judged:
The CAGE questionnaire is a tool used to assess individuals for potential alcohol problems, including dependence. It is useful because it involves 4 simple questions, of which only 2 need to be answered positively for the individual to be indicated as possibly alcohol dependent.
The SAD-Q is a more specific 20 item inventory for assessing the presence and severity of alcohol dependence.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
