Alcoholism

When You Are Pregnant ...: How Drinking Can Hurt Your Baby
by National Institute of Health
When you are pregnant, your baby grows inside you. Everything you eat and drink while you are pregnant affects your baby. If you drink alcohol, it can hurt your baby's growth.

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.

Adolescent and Young Adult Drinking
by National Institute of Health
Alcohol consumption by adolescents and young adults varies greatly in different countries and cultures, in different population groups within a country, and over time. Analyses of per capita consumption in different countries provide some information

Adolescent Alcohol Use: Genetics, Pharmacokinetics and Neurobiology
by National Institute of Health
Complex behaviors such as the initiation and use of alcohol result from an intricate interplay between genes and environment. Genes shape physiological and behavioral responses to alcohol that can influence the likelihood that a young person will begin

Work Stress and Alcohol Use
by National Institute of Health
Employees who drink heavily or who abuse or are dependent on alcohol can undermine a workforce's overall health and productivity. To better understand the reasons behind employee abusive drinking and to develop more effective ways of preventing problem

Adolescent Drinking Behavior and Genes
by National Institute of Health
The years between early adolescence and young adulthood are a crucial period for alcohol researchers to study, because drinking typically is initiated during adolescence, and by young adulthood, individual differences in established drinking patterns

Alcohol Use Among Young Adults in the Military
by National Institute of Health
Heavy alcohol use is a significant problem in the military. Personnel often use alcohol in an attempt to cope with stress, boredom, loneliness, and the lack of other recreational activities.

Still Under the Influence
Beyond the Influence : Understanding and Defeating Alcoholism
by Katherine Ketcham
Alcoholism is not a mysterious illness, nor is it 'willful misconduct.' Alcoholism is a true medical disease rooted in abnormalities in brain chemistry - biochemical aberrations that are inherited by the great majority of alcoholics and, in some cases

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Preventing College-Age Alcohol Abuse
by National Institute of Health
Young adults going off to college can expect to be exposed to many new experiences. Unfortunately, one of them may be heavy drinking. Alcohol abuse is now a widespread problem on the nation's college campuses.

The Remembrance of Our Misdoings
The Black Veil
by Rick Moody
While still in his twenties, Rick Moody found that a decade of alcohol, drugs, and other indulgences had left him stranded in a depression so severe that he feared for his life.

Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment
by Child Welfare Information Gateway
Substance abuse has a major impact on the child welfare system. It is estimated that 9 percent of children in this country (6 million) live with at least one parent who abuses alcohol or other drugs.

Can Your Children Drive You To Drink?: Stress and Parenting in Adults Interacting With Children With ADHD
by National Institute of Health
Several publications in the psychological literature support the theory that children are a major source of stress for their parents. Not surprisingly, parents of children with behavior problems - particularly children with attention deficit hyperactivity

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

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

Alcohol: Frequently Asked Questions
by CDC
Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is an intoxicating ingredient found in beer, wine, and liquor. Alcohol is produced by the fermentation of yeast, sugars, and starches. How does alcohol affect a person?