Facing the Facts About Alcoholism

Any reluctance you may feel about discussing your drinking with your health care professional may stem from common misconceptions about alcoholism and/or alcoholic people. As misguided as it is, the myth that an alcohol problem is somehow a sign of moral weakness too often prevails. In fact, alcoholism is a disease that is no more a sign of weakness than is asthma or diabetes.

Alcohol & Brain Injury: A Bad Mix

If you have experienced a traumatic brain injury, you may want to think twice about uncorking that bottle of wine or cracking open that can of beer. Drinking any amount of alcohol after acquiring a brain injury (either from an accident or a medical impairment such as a stroke or aneurysm) can worsen problems associated with your injury.

College Student Drinking--the Challenges for Their Schools and Communities

When student deaths, injuries, or brawls occur on campus, the response tends to be immediate and focused largely on the individual students and families involved. Once the crisis recedes, there is little incentive to consider either the root causes of such events or their broader implications.

Screening For Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol-Related Problems in College Populations

New-found independence can sometimes be dangerous: Alcohol use and abuse among college students is a serious cause for concern. Many students are under the legal drinking age and many engage in heavy episodic, or binge, drinking. There are a variety of simple screening methods that can help identify those students at greatest risk for alcohol problems so that preventative steps can be taken before it's too late.

If an alcoholic is unwilling to get help, what can you do about it?

An alcoholic can't be forced to get help except under certain circumstances, such as a violent incident that results in court-ordered treatment or a medical emergency. But you don't have to wait for someone to "hit rock bottom" to act. Therapists especially skilled in alcoholism treatment have a series of steps they suggest to encourage an alcoholic get help.

Alcohol Affects Older People Differently

Alcohol's effects do vary with age. Even small amounts of alcohol can create problems for older people because as the body ages, the effects of alcohol can become amplified. The likelihood of taking more medications as you get older also risks increasing alcohol's effects.

Facts About Alcohol--From Social Drinking to Dangerous Dependence

Most adults can drink moderate amounts of alcohol up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people (one drink equals one 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits). However, for a variety of critical reasons, many should not drink at all.

What Is AA's 12-Step Program?

Alcoholics Anonymous has a supportive 12-step program to help people overcome alcoholism. Learn more about what this 12-step program is and how it works...

Drug Abuse and Adolescents

Substance abuse is a major public health problem that puts millions of adolescents at increased risk for alcohol-related and drug-related traffic accidents, risky sexual practices, poor academic performance, juvenile delinquency, and developmental problems. Get the facts.

How Much Drinking Is Too Much?

A new survey estimates that as many as three-fourths of American adults think they know enough about how drinking affects their blood alcohol levels, while in fact, most don't even know the legal limits in their own state. The Century Council, a group backed by major distillers, is campaigning to better educate the public about those limits and how much you have to drink to exceed them.

Teens and Alcohol: The Risks

While some parents may feel relieved that their teen is "only" drinking, it's important to remember that alcohol is a powerful, mood-altering drug. Not only can alcohol affect the mind and body in unpredictable ways, teens typically lack the judgment and coping skills to handle alcohol wisely. Learn about some of the catastrophic results of teen drinking, ways to determine if your child is at risk, and how to receive help.

Older Men More Likely to Seek Treatment for Alcohol

Americans ages 50 and older are more likely to seek treatment for alcohol dependence than any other drug addiction, and older men are particularly at risk of problem drinking.

Effective Options for Treating Alcohol Dependence

Results from a recent study show the medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management.

What's Alcoholism's Affect on Mental Health?

People with mental health problems face an increased risk for alcohol problems and vice versa. Studies show that the overall prevalence of alcohol dependence is almost twice as high among people with mental disorders than in the general population. It is not clear whether mental health problems are a cause or a result of problems with alcohol dependence.

What is a Safe Level of Drinking?

For most adults, moderate alcohol use--up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people--causes few if any problems. However, for a range of circumstances, certain people should not drink at all.

Study Shows Most Treatment Effective Against Alcoholism

A complex study of alcoholism treatment medications and counseling has found that most stand-alone and combined therapies were effective in promoting short-term abstinence, with only the drug acamprosate (Campral) proving to be disappointing.

Self-Medicating to Treat Insomnia

A government expert panel on insomnia recently concluded that too many Americans are using alcohol, antihistamines, and other drugs to self-medicate their insomnia problems.

Binge Drinking: Too Often a Deadly "Game"

In recent national surveys about a third of high school seniors and 42 percent of college students reported at least one occasion of binge drinking within the previous 2 weeks. Alcohol poisoning – a severe and potentially fatal physical reaction to an alcohol overdose – is the most serious consequence of binge drinking.

Rapid Detox - Rapid Opiate Detox - What is it?

Also referred to as "ultra rapid opiate detox," rapid detox is generally conducted in a hospital setting and under general anesthesia for treating opiate based substances and addictions such as heroin, vicodin, methadone, or any prescribed narcotic pain killers.

Neuroimaging Identifies Brain Regions Possibly Involved in Alcohol Craving

Viewing pictures of alcoholic beverages activates the prefrontal cortex and the anterior thalamus in alcoholics but not in moderate drinkers, report Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) researchers in the April Archives of General Psychiatry. The research team is the first to use fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine whether alcohol cues stimulate specific brain regions.