Definitions to increase alcoholism

THE number of Australians diagnosed with a drinking problem could soar as a result of proposed changes to how alcohol-related disorders are defined.

Drug researchers believe the number of people who will fit the criteria for a disorder will rise by about 60 per cent, to about 500,000, under new criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The manual is being updated to create more accurate psychiatric diagnoses. But critics have charged it will expand the criteria for many disorders, leading to more people being considered mentally ill.

A postdoctoral fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW, Louise Mewton, said alcohol use disorder could be diagnosed using two symptoms that were very common.

The first, tolerance, was meant to capture long-term drinkers who could consume a lot without showing effects, but occurred naturally in younger people as their brains developed.

The second, drinking more or for longer than you intended, was meant to capture people who compulsively drank but cast too wide a net.

A research article she wrote, published in the journal Addiction, used data from nearly 8000 drinkers aged over 18, applying the new criteria to the answers they had given when the survey was conducted.

Under the current manual, about 2 per cent met the criteria for alcohol abuse and 4 per cent for dependence, while under the new manual nearly 10 per cent were affected.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/definitions-to-increase-alcoholism-20120223-1tqmy.html#ixzz1nIcrGFsC

I have nothing to say about this. I didn’t know that these kind of things are necessary..Well, yeah maybe they need to categorize alcoholism now in different degrees I think.

The Original Post is Located Here: Suggested Changes to How Alcohol-related Disorders are Defined

To get rid of the problem of alcoholism in the state constabulary, the Chhattisgarh Police has adopted hypnosis as a measure to force the policemen to mend their ways.

The state police top brass came up with the idea after many policemen started turning up drunk on duty.

Initially, the officers roped in medical experts and psychiatrists to help the policemen addicted to alcohol get rid of it. When it failed, they have now adopted hypnosis therapy for the erring policemen.

Read the full release

I sure this hypnosis works..I mean hypnosis has been a widespread solution to almost any kind of problems nowadays..

The Original Post is Located Here: Hypnosis for Alcoholic Cops in Chhattisgarh

A change of heart: Probing how chronic alcoholism alters cellular signaling of heart muscle

Now new experiments led by a team at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health in Albany, and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, may provide insights into possible modes of heart damage from alcohol. The teams will present their findings at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 25-29 in San Diego, Calif.

Using a technique called electron microscopic tomography, the Albany group produced the first 3D images of mitochondria and discovered tiny tethers linking mitochondria to another cell compartment, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where calcium is stored. A clue about the role of these tethers was provided by collaborative experiments with the Philadelphia group. Normally mitochondria take up very little calcium but, as mitochondria get closer to the ER, calcium uptake increases. Calcium overload damages mitochondria, shutting down energy production and leading to cell death.

The researchers looked at calcium regulation and cell structure in the pumping chambers of two groups of laboratory rats to find clues to how hearts are damaged by alcohol consumption. One group of rats was healthy and one was fed alcohol for six months.

The 3D images the team produced clearly show that the mitochondria of alcohol-fed rats are disorganized. The primary focus of the team’s ongoing analysis is the mitochondrial interface with the ER – in particular, characterization of the length, number, and distribution of tethers, which could explain the observed dysfunction of heart mitochondria.

“We’re hoping our ongoing 3D analysis, coupled with the functional information provided by our colleagues at Thomas Jefferson, will help answer the question of how alcohol causes heart disease,” says biophysicist and lead Albany researcher Carmen Mannella, Ph.D. “If we can understand howchronic alcoholism  disrupts fundamental functions such as calcium signaling, then hopefully that information can be used to design preventive or corrective therapies to save hearts – and lives – of those suffering from the disease of alcoholism.”

The Original Post is Located Here: Study: Possible Heart Damage From Alcohol

Alcoholism not uncommon among surgeons

About 15 percent of surgeons have alcohol abuse or dependency problems, a rate that is somewhat higher than the rest of the population, according to a new survey.

The researchers also found that surgeons who showed signs of alcoholism were 45 percent more likely to admit that they had a major medical error in the past three months.

“Surgery is a stressful business. There are people who turn to alcohol to help deal with their stress,” said Dr. Edward Livingston, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.

“Does that affect their performance? Who knows?” he said.

The researchers, led by Dr. Michael Oreskovich at the University of Washington, sent out a survey to more than 25,000 surgeons.

The questions asked about work, lifestyle and mood, and several were used to screen for alcohol abuse or dependency.

Overall, 15 percent of surgeons showed signs of alcohol problems. Other studies have estimated that, among the general population, the number is about nine percent.

The study did not determine why alcohol problems might be more common among surgeons.
Oreskovich’s results showed that alcohol problems were linked with the doctors reporting depression and burnout as well.

Even within the various fields of medicine, surgery is considered particularly demanding.

“The nature of the beast is that the percent of emergencies, the percent of after hours work, and actual scheduled work itself all require an energy and concentration that is really different than a lot of the other specialties,” Oreskovich said.

About 14 percent of male surgeons and 25 percent of female surgeons showed signs of alcohol problems.

The study could not explain why women appear to be more at risk of alcoholism in this group.

“Observations from previous studies show that the stress of being a surgeon, and balancing professional and personal obligations, is much more prevalent in female than male surgeons,”

Oreskovich told Reuters Health.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/23/alcoholism-not-uncommon-among-surgeons/#ixzz1nIMNqnq1

This alcohol problems among surgeons are not only unhealthy for them but also dangerous for their patients…

The Original Post is Located Here: Alcoholism Among Surgeons Are Not Uncommon According to Surveys

Local bars linked to domestic violence

Having a high number of bars or pubs in a neighbourhood is associated with visits to hospital emergency departments due to domestic violence, a new study finds.

But there is no such link with restaurants that serve alcohol, according to the researchers who examined the connection between alcohol-outlet densities and domestic violence cases in California emergency rooms between July 2005 and December 2008.

The study appears online and in a print issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Researchers knew that alcohol increases emergency department visits for domestic violence on an individual level, but wanted to further examine certain neighbourhood characteristics, study corresponding author Carol Cunradi, a senior research scientist at the Prevention Research Centre, said in a journal news release.

The researchers also looked at off-premise outlets: liquor stores and grocery stores that sell alcohol.

Key findings

“The key findings of the study are that the density of bars was positively associated with [emergency department visits from domestic violence], and the density of off-premise outlets was negatively associated with [these visits],” Cunradi said.

“For the latter finding, the association was weaker and smaller than the bar association,” she said, and there was no association between restaurant density and emergency department visits for domestic violence.

“Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms that underlie these associations,” she added.

Emergency visits represent a much more serious level of domestic violence than police reports, according to Cunradi.

Read the full release here

I find this as being true because those who cannot control their drinking limit could cause problems and violence when they get back home..

The Original Post is Located Here: Drinking Bars May Be Linked to Domestic Violence

From Alcoholism to Food Addiction – It’s All About the Feelings

In his BBC Panorama programme Britain’s Hidden Alcoholics on Monday evening, Alastair Campbell suggested he probably traded one addiction for another when he put down alcohol and picked up running.

From my experience with addiction, I’d say he probably did.

Like Tony Blair’s former right-hand-man, I was a fully functioning, seemingly successful, competent professional. I worked as a political reporter for a global news agency during Blair’s time in office, asking questions of the prime minister and flying on his plane to Iraq and Afghanistan.

But like Alastair in his journalism days, I also had a crutch – in my case, it was food. Despite my outward confidence, I felt inadequate, imperfect and insecure and would binge on sugar and carbohydrates to ease my fears, boost my self-esteem and cope with the stress of my job. I’d manage my weight with compulsive exercise. I was a secret eater – nobody knew.

My binge eating began in my teens but I was in my early thirties before I realised I had a problem with food. In a survey by eating disorders charity b-eat to mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week this week, 58% of people said they didn’t tell anyone about their eating disorder because they didn’t know how to talk about it – I didn’t tell anyone about mine because I wasn’t aware I had it.

Whether you’re an alcoholic, binge eater or drug user, denial is the hallmark of addiction. And the more successful you are on the outside, the easier it is to stay in denial. I knew I was obsessed with my body and food but it never occurred to me that the binge eating, starving and compulsive exercising that dominated my life for almost two decades were rooted in addiction.

That realisation didn’t come until the sedative effect of my drug of choice – food – wore off. Gradually, in my early thirties, the pain and shame I felt after bingeing became greater than its comforting effects. I’ve been recovering ever since, with the help of therapy and support from other eating disorder sufferers and addicts.

Read the full release here

This is really going to be helpful as long as the addiction will negatively affect you. I hope food addiction will not lead to obesity though..which is unhealthy.

The Original Post is Located Here: Alcoholism and Food Addiction

Stop drinking or you will be dead in five years

The ex-Rangers star — hailed by fans as the Ibrox club’s greatest ever keeper — told how pals confronted him last year following a three-day bender that left him at rock bottom.

They warned him he was out of control after long-suffering partner Elaine Mitchell kicked him out of the house they share in Lanarkshire over boozy antics that ended with him travelling home from Thurso, Caithness, out of his gourd.

Three months later, the SunSport columnist is clear-eyed and sober — and barely remembers a thing from his final lost weekend in November.

But he told The Scottish Sun the day he finally faced his drink demons will live with him forever.

He said: “There were friends around me who gave me five years to live if I carried on the way I was.

“They were right — if I had kept going and rattling the drink I would not have been here much longer.

“It hit me that I had two sons Danny and Lewis who need me in their lives.

“I have to address that and make it better and that’s what I want to do.

“I was 47 and I was drinking myself to death, I’ve reached my turning point. I don’t want to go back.”

He said: “I rang a close friend who had helped me save my Rangers career when I was playing.

“He told me I was going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with him.

“I think that was the biggest part, admitting to myself that I had a serious problem.

“Those meetings educated me that after my greed would come my dependency.”

He added: “I stood up at my first meeting and I said: ‘I am Andy Goram and I am an alcoholic.’ I had never classed myself as that but I had to be honest now and say that I was.

“My idea of an alcoholic was someone who got up in the morning and the first thing they’d do was have a drink.

Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/4140125/Stop-drinking-or-you-will-be-dead-in-five-years.html#ixzz1n0TgdsXh

This may or may not be true fro everyone but still, it is important that alcoholics to realize that drinking can cause various illnesses..

The Original Post is Located Here: Alcoholism Can Kill You in Five Years?

Chronic alcoholics given free booze in Vancouver

VANCOUVER — In October the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and the Portland Hotel Society began a pilot program that serves 12 daily doses of alcohol — one every hour from 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.— to eight chronic alcoholics living in the Downtown Eastside.

Four months later there are some signs that the program is having beneficial effects, says Dr. Ron Joe, Vancouver Coastal Health’s manager of inner city addiction.

Known as the Managed Alcohol Program (MAP), Vancouver’s is based on similar programs that have been operating in Ontario for the past 15 years, says Joe.

“We want to offer the same program for severe drinkers here. These are people who are not just drinking regular alcohol but drinking Listerine, hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol.

“Basically they are drinking poison. And the evidence from studies back east shows that a maintenance program has beneficial results,” he said.

When chronic alcoholics dilute a 500 millilitre bottle of rubbing alcohol it provides the equivalent of 30 beers, says Joe,

Some people in the study drank three or four bottles of rubbing alcohol a day giving them an alcoholic intake equivalent to 120 beers, he says.

“These are all individuals who have done the rounds of detox and all the conventional and available treatment,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate, but we can’t cure this condition. I wish we could. But we have to accept this harm reduction approach. Ideally, we want to get these persons to abstinence,” he said.

The alcohol — the participant’s choice of vodka, wine or beer — is dispensed by medical staff at the Station Street Community, 1005 Station St, a supportive housing complex of 80 units which opened a year ago to house the homeless.

All those participating in the study live there and are among the small population of chronic alcoholics that routinely show up in hospital emergency departments with serious injuries from falls or fights or unconscious from over-drinking.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Chronic+alcoholics+given+free+booze+Vancouver/6171903/story.html#ixzz1n0SKO9l1

This sounds promising. I hope this really works so more and more alcoholics can benefit from it.

The Original Post is Located Here: Alcoholism Program in Vancouver Gives Free Booze to Alcoholics

Concert series to benefit Serento Gardens

A special concert series to benefit a Hazleton-based alcoholism and drug treatment center will bring nationally and internationally known recording artists to Northeastern Pennsylvania this spring.

Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico from the band moe. will grace the stage at one venue in the Rock the Walls Benefit Concert Series under the name of their side project, Floodwood, a “progressive string band” from upstate New York.

Floodwood is made up of veteran, worldwide touring musicians, according to the band’s Facebook page, and also includes Wooden Spoon’s Jason Barady, mandolin/vocals; Nick Piccininni, banjo/fiddle/vocals, and Zachary Fleitz, bass/vocals. Amico plays drums in the band and Schnier sings and plays guitar.

Moe., an independent jamband, was formed in the 1980s in Buffalo, N.Y. Schnier plays guitar and keyboards and sings, while Amico is the drummer.

Floodwood will hit the stage at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains for the third concert in the series on April 15.

Nadine LaFond will also join the benefit during the fourth date, set for April 29 at the jazz cafe. According to her website, she is best known as lead vocalist and co-songwriter with Swampadelica. She is described as a powerhouse singer with a wide sonic range and has contributed on projects such as “The Green Sparrow” by Phish bassist Mike Gordon and “Sticks & Stones” by moe.

Performing and collaborating for more than a decade, LaFond is working on her solo debut, “Wisdom Child,” due for release in summer.

But those two acts are just a fraction of the musicians, some of whom are local favorites who have offered to help save lives by raising money for Serento Gardens Alcoholism and Drug Treatment Center, Hazleton.

Three concerts are planned for the River Street Jazz Cafe and two are scheduled at the clubhouse at Beech Mountain Lakes, Drums.

Read more: http://standardspeaker.com/news/concert-series-to-benefit-serento-gardens-1.1273199#ixzz1n0Qo67OY

I hope there are a lot more activities or charities that would help combat alcoholism in this country..

The Original Post is Located Here: Special Concert Series to Benefit a Hazleton-based Alcoholism and Drug Treatment Center

Kim Richards admits to being an alcoholic

Kim Richards may have denied alcoholism and drug addiction while filming episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but now she’s opening up and telling the truth.

Perez Hilton reported Paris Hilton’s aunt admitted to Bravo’s Andy Cohen in a reunion episode for the show that she does have problems.

“I’m an alcoholic,” the 47-year-old said. “I have so much guilt and shame for my behavior and what I did. And then I drank to cover the guilt and shame.”

According to the UK’s Daily Mail, Richards has been in rehab three times for treatment, and believes that she won’t be going back for a fourth time.

“I’m a person that has done it and relapsed and done it. But at least I’m trying,” she said. “I felt off. I just didn’t like me anymore and I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror anymore.”

Richards also said that she couldn’t bear watching herself on the show and that her decline in confidence from the beginning of the second season to the end is very evident.

“The voice wasn’t mine, the mannerisms weren’t mine. It just wasn’t me,” she said.

As for her season two boyfriend Ken Blumenfeld, Richards said she is no longer seeing him and has moved out. Instead, she is now focused on reconnecting with her children.

Read the full release here

I gotta say that it was brave of her to finally tells the truth about her being an alcoholic. I hope she gets help and gets better soon..

The Original Post is Located Here: Kim Richards Opens Up and Telling the Truth About Being Alcoholic