Alcoholism

Does Drinking Reduce Stress?
by National Institute of Health
For centuries, people have used alcohol to relieve stress - that is, the interpretation of an event as signaling harm, loss, or threat. The organism usually responds to stress with a variety of behavioral, biological, and cognitive changes.

Alcohol and Tobacco Use Prevention: Life Skills Training
by National Institute of Health
Rates of drinking and smoking increase among high school students as they age. Therefore, prevention programs that target youth either before or during junior high school may help prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use during high school.

Alcohol Dependence and Habitual Smoking : Risks
by National Institute of Health
Smoking and alcohol dependence frequently occur together, and both behaviors are determined in part by genetic influences. The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), which is investigating the genetic factors contributing to alcohol

Smoking and Drinking: Sociocultural Influences
by National Institute of Health
Numerous research studies have shown that sociocultural factors influence the initiation and continued use of alcohol and tobacco among adolescents and adults. Few studies have examined the effects of sociocultural factors on the tendency of smokers

Smoking and Drinking Link: Behavioral Mechanisms
by National Institute of Health
Many people use both alcohol and nicotine (cigarettes and other tobacco products). The behavioral effects of these two drugs differ, and they do not act on the same target sites in the brain, although they may share, or partly share, certain properties.

Smoking and the Genetic Contribution to Alcohol-Dependence
by National Institute of Health
Genes influence a person's risk of becoming a smoker as well as the risk of alcohol dependence. Because substantially higher rates of smoking are observed in alcoholics than in control groups, uncovering the mechanisms underlying this association

Alcohol and Tobacco Use: Patterns of Co-Occurring Consumption and Dependence
by National Institute of Health
Epidemiologists have conducted nationwide surveys, such as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) and the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), to estimate the prevalence of either the individual or the concurrent consumption of and dependence

Alcohol, Memory Blackouts and the Brain
by National Institute of Health
Alcohol primarily interferes with the ability to form new long-term memories, leaving intact previously established long-term memories and the ability to keep new information active in memory for brief periods.

Sensitivity to Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage
by National Institute of Health
Women are more vulnerable than men to many of the medical consequences of alcohol use. Although research has shown that male alcoholics generally have smaller brain volumes than nonalcoholic males, the few studies that have compared brain structure

Effects of Alcohol Dependence on the Brain: Positron Emission Tomography
by National Institute of Health
To study alcohol's effects on the structure and function of the brain in living human beings, researchers can use various imaging techniques. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging approach used to study the metabolism and physiology

Alcoholism and Human Electrophysiology
by National Institute of Health
Electroencephalography (EEG), the recording of electrical signals from the brain, provides a noninvasive measure of brain function as it is happening. Research using EEG, as well as event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related oscillations (EROs)

Brain Damage in Alcoholics: Magnetic Resonance and Diffusion Tensor Imaging
by National Institute of Health
Brain imaging using conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revealed that several brain structures in people with a history of chronic alcohol dependence are smaller in volume than the same brain structures in nonalcoholic control subjects.

Hepatic Encephalopathy: Complication of Alcoholic Liver Disease
by National Institute of Health
Alcohol's harmful effects on liver cells not only interfere not only with the normal functioning of the liver but also impact distant organs, including the brain. Prolonged liver dysfunction resulting from excessive alcohol consumption can lead

Thiamine Deficiency and Alcoholic Brain Disease
by National Institute of Health
A deficiency in the essential nutrient thiamine resulting from chronic alcohol consumption is one factor underlying alcohol-induced brain damage. Thiamine is a helper molecule (a cofactor) required by three enzymes involved in two pathways of carbohydrate

Alcoholism and the Brain
by National Institute of Health
Alcoholism can affect the brain and behavior in a variety of ways, and multiple factors can influence these effects. A person's susceptibility to alcoholism-related brain damage may be associated with his or her age, gender, drinking history

Alcoholic Liver Disease: Liver Transplantation
by National Institute of Health
In many patients, long-term heavy drinking leads to chronic liver disease, liver failure, and even death. Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is the only definitive treatment for end-stage liver disease, including alcoholic liver disease (ALD).

Alcoholic Liver Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment
by National Institute of Health
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a serious and potentially fatal consequence of alcohol use. The diagnosis of ALD is based on drinking history, physical signs and symptoms, and laboratory tests.

Hepatitis C and Alcohol
by National Institute of Health
Patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) who drink heavily are likely to suffer more severe liver injury, promoting disease progression to cirrhosis and increasing their risk for liver cancer.

Nutrition, Alcohol Use and Liver Disease
by National Institute of Health
Many alcoholics are malnourished, either because they ingest too little of essential nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins) or because alcohol and its metabolism prevent the body from properly absorbing, digesting, and using those nutrients.

Understanding Alcoholic Liver Disease
by National Institute of Health
This article describes the various forms of alcoholic liver disease, with particular emphasis on cirrhosis, the form of liver disease that often is most associated with alcohol abuse and about which the most information is available.