Journal of Alcoholism & Drug Dependence
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Treatments of Alcoholism Disease

Tilman Wetterling

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Description

Alcoholism is the most severe kind of problem drinking that is harmful to one's health. It refers to a strong, often overwhelming urge to consume alcohol. Alcoholism is sometimes referred to as alcohol addiction or alcoholism. It's classified as a form of 'alcohol-use disorder' that may be treated medically. It differs from 'harmful drinking,' which is a habit of heavy drinking that harms your health but does not lead to dependency. Someone who is addicted to alcohol will typically prioritize drinking over all other responsibilities, including job and family, and will develop a physical tolerance, which means they will drink more and more to have the same impact and will feel withdrawal symptoms if they stop drinking [1].

Alcoholism is defined as the excessive and recurrent consumption of alcoholic drinks to the point where the drinker is repeatedly damaged or causes harm to others. The injury might be bodily or emotional, as well as social, legal, or financial. Alcoholism is classified as an addiction and a disease by the majority of physicians, although not all. This is because such usage is typically regarded as compulsive and under significantly reduced voluntary control.

Alcoholism is a complicated, multifaceted phenomenon with several technical definitions that differ depending on the definer's point of view. Alcoholism is a condition induced by continuous, obsessive drinking, according to a simple definition. A strictly pharmacological-physiological definition of alcoholism characterizes it as a substance addiction that necessitates increasing dosages of consumption to achieve desired benefits and results in a withdrawal state when drinking is discontinued. This description, however, is insufficient since, unlike other substance addicts, alcoholics do not always require everincreasing dosages of alcohol [2].

Prevalence of alcoholism

The prevalence of alcoholism is estimated differently based on the terminology employed and the methods used to calculate it. Depending on the stringency of the criteria used, 10 to 20% of males and 5 to 10% of women in the United States will fulfill criteria for alcoholism at some time in their life. These rates are similar to those in many Western European nations, while they are slightly higher in Eastern European ones. Rates are substantially lower in nations surrounding the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia. In general, rates in Africa are modest, but in new urban slums, they are quite high.

Diseases associated with alcoholism

Morbidity from alcohol consumption is on par with malaria and unsafe sex across the world, higher than that from smoking, and significantly higher than that from illegal drug use. These figures put drunkenness at the top of the list of public health issues. Alcoholics have a 2.5-fold higher death rate than the general population. Heavy smoking cuts life by about 8 years, while alcoholism cuts it by 15 years. Active alcoholics make up as much as 25% of patients in general hospitals in the United States [3,4].

Acute diseases: Intoxication with alcohol causes a wide range of changes in neuromuscular and cerebral activities, as well as changes in body chemistry. Furthermore, an inebriated individual is more susceptible to accidents and injury. Alcoholics who are severely intoxicated regularly on a regular basis are believed to be 30 times more likely to die from poisoning, 16 times more likely to die from a fall, and 4.5 times more likely to die in some kind of a car accident. Suicide, homicide, fire, and drowning deaths are all nearly doubled. These vulnerabilities reflect alcoholics' inadequate self-care as well as the impacts of rapid intoxication.

Chronic diseases: Alcoholism is related to psychological, social, and medical chronic diseases. Depression, emotional instability, anxiety, poor cognitive function, and, of course, obsessive selfdestructive alcohol use are among the psychological diseases. There is generally a significant improvement on tests evaluating chronic depression and anxiety after a highly varied time of abstinence, spanning from weeks to years.

Treatment of alcoholism

Physiological, psychological, and social therapy for alcoholism can be divided into three categories. Many physiological therapies are used in conjunction with psychological treatments, but they are occasionally used in their "pure" form without any explicit psychotherapy goal.

Physiological therapies: Detoxification the safe removal of the patient from alcohol, generally in a hospital setting is the most essential physiological medical therapy. This procedure prevents life-threatening delirium tremens while simultaneously addressing medical issues that have gone unnoticed. Furthermore, advanced hospital detoxification programs provide patients and their families hope for recovery and begin the alcoholic's relapse prevention education. Improvement prevention is crucial, just as it is with smoking cessation.

Psychological therapies: To treat the psychoneuroses and character disorders linked with alcoholism, psychotherapy involves a variety of modalities, including individual and group procedures. The goal might range from removing underlying alleged psychological reasons to inducing just enough change in the patient's emotional and volitional state so that he or she can either abstain from drinking completely or drink in moderation. Analytical and cognitive-behavioral treatments are becoming increasingly popular, and they are frequently used in combination with supporting goals. Unfortunately, most psychotherapy’s benefits on alcoholism are only noteworthy in the short term, much as medication.

Conclusion

Alcohol is not a common product. While many people associate it with pleasure and sociability, the negative repercussions of its usage are many and ubiquitous. Globally, the policy must take into account various conditions in different civilizations in order to limit the harm caused by alcohol. Two aspects of alcohol use that must be considered in attempts to lessen the burden of alcohol-related issues are average quantities drank and drinking patterns. Avoiding the combination of drinking and driving is one example of a practice that can help to decrease the harmful effects of alcohol on the body. Alcohol has a huge impact on people's lives and communities all over the world, particularly in developing nations, and its contribution to the overall burden of illness is anticipated to rise in the future. Increase in the average quantity of alcohol drank per person in nations such as China and India, as well as increasingly dangerous and risky drinking practices among young people, is particularly concerning developments.

References

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