AIMS This study aimed at testing whether drinking volume and episodic heavy drinking (EHD) frequency in Germany are polarizing between consumption levels over time. Polarization is defined as a reduction in alcohol use among the majority of the population, while a subpopulation with a high intake level maintains or increases its drinking or its EHD frequency. The polarization hypothesis was tes...

If relatively little is known about drug and alcohol use in the rural United States (Edwards 1992), even less is known about such use among migrant and seasonal farmworkers. An extensive literature exists on patterns of alcohol and drug consumption, and a somewhat smaller, but still sub-stantial, scholarly literature describes the lives of farmworkers, both migrant and nonmigrant. However, thes...

Among the tasks facing those who code alcohol-related disorders in an international classification of disease are an examination of the multiple places in which the involvement of alcohol and other psychoactive substances (and their associated disorders) are captured and finding out how this can be optimized for clinical and epidemiological purposes. It is important to adjust the current coding...

In the United States, only about 10 percent of people with an alcohol or drug use disorder receive care for the condition, pointing to a large treatment gap. Several personal characteristics influence whether a person will receive treatment; additionally, many people with an alcohol use disorder do not perceive the need for treatment. The extent of the treatment gap differs somewhat across diff...

Aim: Authors investigated the association between alcohol use of parents and offspring in data derived from a district based household survey on drug abuse. Methods: Data on 4411 fathers paired with 6884 offspring were available. Alcohol use disorders were diagnosed based on DSM-III-R criteria. Analyses was conducted to contrast 1979 offspring of alcohol using fathers (AU+ [n=1246]) with 4885 o...

BACKGROUND Nearly all European countries have been affected by the economic crisis that began in 2007, but the consequences have been among the worst in Spain. We investigated the associations of the recession on the frequency of mood, anxiety, somatoform, alcohol-related and eating disorders among those visiting Spanish primary care settings. METHODS Primary care physicians selected randomiz...

People seeking treatment for alcohol problems frequently abuse other drugs as well, such as tobacco, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and opiates. The problem of polydrug use raises important issues for treatment providers. A person who abuses multiple drugs may have a more difficult time stopping drinking and a higher risk for relapse to alcohol use after treatment. Conversely, a person wh...

AIMS Individuals in treatment for alcohol use disorders are more likely to die from cigarette use than from alcohol consumption. Advanced statistical methodologies that increase study power and clinical relevance have been advocated to examine the timevarying nature of substance use relapse and abstinence, including drinking and smoking. The purpose of this investigation was to examine timevary...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have not distinguished between different alcohol-use histories, which could have contributed to the current inconsistent evidence regarding the relationship between alcohol use and subsequent sickness absence. We thus examined alcohol use and subsequent diagnosis-specific sickness absence in groups with different levels of alcohol use, as well as in lifelong abstaine...

Neurocognitive deficits associated with impairments in various brain regions and neural circuitries, particularly involving frontal lobes, have been associated with chronic alcoholism, as well as with a predisposition to develop alcohol use and related disorders (AUDs). AUD is a multifactorial disorder caused by complex interactions between behavioral, genetic, and environmental liabilities. Ne...