|
Alcoholism is a disorder marked by a pathological pattern of alcohol use that causes serious impairment of social or occupational functioning.
Alcohol related disease is a significant problem in general hospitals.
- in the UK, it is estimated that 24% of adults drink in a hazardous or harmful
way (1)
- hazardous and harmful drinking are commonly encountered among people attending
hospital for reasons unrelated to alcohol; approximately 20% of patients admitted
to hospital for illnesses unrelated to alcohol are drinking at potentially
hazardous levels (1)
Griffith Edwards and Gross(1976) defined some simple markers of alcoholism.
These are:
- dependent drinkers have a narrow repertoire of alcohol consumption: alcohol is used to avoid withdrawal symptoms
- drinking overtakes the individual's activities to the exclusion of everything else, leading to theft, begging and borrowing
- withdrawal symptoms include trembling, fear, insomnia, nightmares, sweating and hallucinations.
- tolerance develops so that the dependent drinker consumes quantities which might make non-drinkers unconscious
- dependent drinkers know that they cannot control their alcohol use
- there is a high tendency to relapse after abstinence
Alcohol withdrawal symptoms occur within 12 hours of the last drink.
Reference:
|
