Most Excessive Drinkers Are Not Alcoholics

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Only 10 percent of men and women who consume too much alcohol are actually alcoholics or alcohol dependent, according to a new government study published Thursday in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journal Preventing Chronic Disease.
While excessive drinking can cause serious health problems and is responsible for an average of 88,000 deaths each year, Elahe Izadi of The Washington Post explains that the new study debunks the notion that most excessive drinkers are not alcohol dependent. The report is said to be one of the first national, multi-year investigations of alcoholism among excessive drinkers, she added.
The study, prepared by the CDC and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found that nearly one-third of all adults is an excessive drinker, meaning that they are binge drinkers (consuming four or more alcoholic beverages at a time for women, five or more for men), that they consume a certain amount of drinks per week (eight for women, 15 for men) or are alcohol-consuming minors or pregnant women.
Alcohol dependence, on the other hand, is described as a chronic medical condition typically including a current or past history of excessive alcohol consumption, a strong craving for alcohol, the continued consumption of such beverages despite repeated problems with drinking, and/or an inability to control alcohol consumption.

Image Above Credit CDC. Click here for the full infographic.

“This study shows that, contrary to popular opinion, most people who drink too much are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics,” Robert Brewer, head of the CDC’s alcohol program and one of the study authors, said in a statement. “It also emphasizes the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to reducing excessive drinking that includes evidence-based community strategies, screening and counseling in healthcare settings, and high-quality substance abuse treatment for those who need it.”
“A lot of people mistakenly assume that people who drink too much are alcoholics,” he added in an interview with Stephen Reinberg of HealthDay News. While Brewer said that some excessive drinkers are “self-medicating,” he added that “a lot of it is a reflection of the fact that we live in a society where people… have been led to believe that drinking, and often drinking a large amount, is part of having a good time. What we need to do is change the environment in which people make their drinking decisions.”
The message being sent by the CDC study isn’t that people who drink too much should not worry about their habits, Izadi explained, only that efforts to combat excessive drinking as a public health issue needs to focus on more than just alcoholism, a chronic medical condition. As Reinberg pointed out, excessive drinking can result in alcohol poisoning, as well as long-term effects such as breast cancer, liver disease and heart disease.
“Anybody who takes from this paper that excessive drinking is not dangerous unless you are dependent is simply not getting the message, which is that drinking too much is bad, period,” Brewer told Reuters, noting that it was important to quantify how many heavy drinkers were alcoholics to effectively treat both groups. “The great preponderance of people who are drinking too much are not candidates for specialized treatment but they can be helped in other ways.”
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