Excessive Drinking, Not Alcoholism, May Lead To Most Alcohol-related Problems
by Lisa Frederiksen
As you may have read in one of my previous blogs, “Alcohol Use/Abuse/Addiction – What’s the Difference?”, excessive drinking causes significant risk, harm and distress to the excessive drinker and to his or her family and friends (1) – risk, harm and distress that equals that which is most often associated with alcoholism. These include driving while intoxicated, relationship problems with a spouse, parent, boss, friend or child, suspension from school or absences from work and/or arrests. Additionally, alcoholics go through the “stage” of excessive (abusive) drinking before they “cross the line” to addiction (alcoholism). Yet, we still tend to view drinking as either “normal” or “alcoholic.”
So, I found this ScienceDaily article, “Excessive Drinking, Not Alcoholism, May Lead to Most Alcohol-related Problems,” especially interesting, and I think you will, too. It reports the survey results of a 2002 New Mexico population study that found that “16.5 percent of 4,761 New Mexico adults were considered ‘excessive drinkers,’ but only 1.8 percent of them met criteria for alcohol dependence.”(3) Alcohol epidemiologist
for the New Mexico Department of Health , Jim Roeber, is quoted as saying, “The downside of the assumption that alcohol dependence is the predominant form of excessive drinking is that prevention resources have tended to be directed toward treatment of alcohol dependence [aka alcoholism], rather than prevention of more prevalent forms that are responsible for a large proportion of alcohol-related problems.” He added “that, at least in New Mexico, ‘alcohol-related prevention efforts should be broadened to focus on other forms of excessive drinking in addition to alcohol dependence, especially binge drinking.’”(4) This position is fully supported by Tim Naimi, a physician with the Alcohol Team at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, whose reported in this article as saying, “In order to prevent most alcohol-related problems, including alcoholism itself, we need to focus on excessive drinking, not just alcoholism.”(5)
I will be looking for information on programs that focus on the excessive drinking aspect (vs. alcoholism / alcohol dependence) to share with you, and if you know of any or have any comments on this idea, please share them, as well.
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(1) Babor, Thomas F., John C. Higgins-Biddle, JOhn B. Saunders and Maristela G. Monteiro, AUDIT (The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), World Health Organization (WHO), page 5, <http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2001/WHO_MSD_MSB_01.6a.pdf>
(2) Science Daily, Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (2007, January 26). Excessive Drinking, Not Alcoholism, May Lead To Most Alcohol-related Problems. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 20, 2008, from <http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/01/070125185936.htm>
(3) Ibid
(4) Ibid
(5) Ibid
