Researcher Deborah S. Hasin of Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues analyzed data gathered from face-to-face interviews with more than 43,000 people between 2001 and 2002. The researchers found that most people with alcohol dependency or addiction fall into trouble in early adulthood, and that only rarely do alcoholics receive professional help for their addictions.
Hasin and her colleagues found that about 8% of those interviewed reported episodes of alcohol abuse and about 13% reported episodes of alcohol dependence, according to the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Their research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Alcohol abuse and dependence lead to a variety of negative consequences, including car crashes, domestic violence, birth defects and economic costs, the authors write. Prolonged alcohol abuse has also been linked to liver disease, stroke, heart failure and other cardiovascular disease.
Other survey findings included:
- Alcohol abuse developed at an average age of 22.5 years.
- Alcohol dependence began at an average age of 21.9.
- Alcohol dependence was associated with disability levels that increased steadily as dependence became more severe.
- Less that one-quarter of the people who developed alcohol dependence during their lifetimes ever received treatment.
- Only 12.1% of those with alcohol dependence during the previous year received treatment during that time.
- The average age at which patients first received treatment for alcohol dependence was 29.8 years - eight years later than the average age at which they developed the condition.
For the purpose of the Columbia study, diagnosis of alcohol abuse required participants to be included in one or more of the following criteria, while a diagnosis of alcohol dependence required three or more of the criteria.
- Recurrent alcohol use resulting in a failure to fulfill major obligations at work, school, or home.
- Recurrent alcohol use in physically hazardous situations, such as driving while intoxicated.
- Legal problems resulting from recurrent alcohol use (DUI, domestic violence and fights).
- Continued alcohol use despite significant social or interpersonal problems caused by the substance use (job loss, relationship troubles).
- Increase in tolerance (more alcohol is needed to achieve the same effect).
- Alcohol withdrawal symptoms."Alcohol dependence was significantly more prevalent among men, whites, Native Americans, younger and unmarried adults and those with lower incomes," the authors write.
Harvard University researchers find no silver lining in the storm clouds gathering over the issue of global warming.
According to an analysis published in the journal Occupational and Environment Medicine, global warming will cause more deaths in summer because of higher temperatures but these will not be offset by fewer deaths in milder winters.
Harvard researchers pored over city-specific weather data related to the deaths of more than 6.5 million people in 50 U.S. cities between 1989 and 2000.
They found that during two-day cold snaps there was a 1.59% increase in deaths because of the extreme temperatures. However, during similar periods of extremely hot weather death rates went up by 5.74%.
Deaths did not rise as steeply when temperature fluctuations were less extreme.
Deaths from all causes are known to rise when temperatures go up, and heart attacks and cardiac arrests are more likely when it is very cold. It was anticipated that global warming would increase deaths during hot temperatures but that this would be compensated for by fewer deaths in the winter.
"Our findings suggest that decreases in cold weather as a result of global warming are unlikely to result in decreases in cold-related mortality in the U.S. Heat-related mortality, in contrast, may increase, particularly if global warming is associated with increased variance of summer temperature," the authors concluded.
While all 50 U.S. cities showed similar rises in deaths when temperatures plummeted, more deaths were seen during extreme temperature rises in cities with milder summers, less air conditioning and higher population density.
The authors suggest that this is because the use of central heating is widespread, whereas fewer people have air-conditioning in their homes.
"Central heating, which constitutes an important adaptive mechanism against cold, is almost universal in the U.S. and this may explain why the U.S. population seemed fully acclimatized to cold," the authors write.
"Making air conditioning universally available may reduce heat-related mortality but would, on the other hand, have a perverse effect by enhancing global warming through carbon dioxide emissions from electricity consumption."
E-mail Ven Griva at ven.griva@copleynews.com or write to P.O. Box 120190, San Diego, CA 92112.
