Alcohol use: Weighing risks and benefits
Alcohol use disorder is a problematic pattern of alcohol use that leads to distress in one’s daily life, according to the DSM-5. Experiencing at least two symptoms throughout the course of a year merits a diagnosis, from mild to moderate to severe. Alcohol Use Disorder is a pattern of disordered drinking that leads to significant distress. It can involve withdrawal symptoms, disruption of daily tasks, discord in relationships, and risky decisions that place oneself or others in danger.
The harm may be physical or mental; it may also be social, legal, or economic. Because such use is usually considered to be compulsive and under markedly diminished voluntary control, alcoholism is considered by a majority of, but not all, clinicians as an addiction and a disease. The Global Information System on Alcohol and Health (GISAH) has been developed by WHO to dynamically present data on levels and why are people alcoholics patterns of alcohol consumption, alcohol-attributable health and social consequences and policy responses at all levels. Individual factors include age, gender, family circumstances and socio-economic status. Although there is no single risk factor that is dominant, the more vulnerabilities a person has, the more likely the person is to develop alcohol-related problems as a result of alcohol consumption.
Risks of heavy alcohol use
Olanzapine reduced alcohol cravings in young adult subjects (23 years average age)58 and reduced the number of drinks per day in AUD patients with higher baseline drinking habits,59,60 but only in individuals with the long version of the D4 dopamine receptor gene (DRD4). Alcohol consumption is linked not only to unintentional https://ecosoberhouse.com/ but also to intentional injury. Both average volume of alcohol consumption and the level of drinking before the event have been shown to affect suicide risk (Borges and Loera 2010). There also is a clear link between alcohol consumption and aggression, including, but not limited to, homicides (Rehm et al. 2003b).
One night of binge drinking can jumble the electrical signals that keep your heart’s rhythm steady. If you do it for years, you can make those heart rhythm changes permanent and cause what’s called arrhythmia. Over time, it causes heart muscles to droop and stretch, like an old rubber band. Your heart can’t pump blood as well, and that impacts every part of your body. Over time, heavy drinking makes the organ fatty and lets thicker, fibrous tissue build up. That limits blood flow, so liver cells don’t get what they need to survive.
Examine the causes and treatment of alcoholism, and why it is considered an addiction and a disease
Craving was added as a diagnostic criteria and at least two target conditions are now required for diagnosis of AUD.3 New International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) 10 codes that correspond to DSM-5 will be used beginning in October 2014. The majority of clinical trials in this review include subjects with DSM-IV alcohol dependence diagnosis. For all chronic disease categories for which detailed data are available, those data show that women have a higher risk of these conditions than men who have consumed the same amount of alcohol; however, the differences are small at lower levels of drinking (Rehm et al. 2010a). The following sections will look at these disease categories individually.
Alcoholism is a treatable disease, with many treatment programs and approaches available to support alcoholics who have decided to get help. Getting help before your problem drinking progresses to severe alcohol use disorder can save your life. For many, beer, wine, and spirits conjure up thoughts of social gatherings and tipsy fun. But alcohol is a nervous system depressant and easily alters behavior, culminating in some cases in the emotional pain and physical disintegration of alcohol addiction, colloquially known as alcoholism. Experts continue to debate the benefits and risks of drinking and passionately argue over whether moderation or complete abstinence is the best option for those who struggle with alcoholism. Alcohol use disorder (sometimes called alcoholism) is a medical condition.
