ALCOHOL ADDICTION

Alcohol addiction is also referred as alcoholism or alcohol dependency. Unlimited consumption of alcohol results in death of an individual. Alcohol addicts can be treated like other drug addicts. The term alcoholism or alcohol addiction was first proposed by Magnus Huss, a Swedish physician in the year 1849. Medically, they are referred as alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency. Earlier, in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, alcoholism was referred as dipsomania. The term Dipsomania was developed by C. W. Hufeland,a German physician in the year 1819 before coining alcoholic term. In the year 1960, scientist E. Morton Jellinek identified the disease caused by alcohol consumption.

Impact factors of alcoholism

Following factors are damaged due to alcoholic consumption.

• Age
• Sex
• Ethnic groups
• Genetic predisposition
• Mental health
• Social status
• Environment stress
• Brain disorder
• Tolerance
• Physical dependence

When a person is under alcoholic consumption for years together, then withdrawal of alcohol may endanger his/her life. Alcohol will damage each and every organ of body starting physical imbalance to chronic disorder especially in brain.

Symptoms of alcohol addiction

Patients lose their tolerance level and are physically dependent on alcohol. This induces psychiatric disorders like suicide attempt. Physical damage is visible in long term alcohol misuse. Liver damage, pancreas, epilepsy, heart disease, sexual dysfunction, nutritional deficiency, cardiovascular disease, neural disorder and cancer development are physical symptoms. Women consuming alcohol are at higher risk than men. Women suffer from sexual dysfunction, breast cancer and problem in menstrual cycle.

It induces psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, psychosis, schizophrenia, confusion, hyper active, bipolar disorder and personality disorder and brain syndrome. Social effects like child abuse, rape, burglary, assault, loss of employment, torture behavior, divorce, child neglect are possible when an individual is completely dependent on alcohol for long term.

Diagnosing alcoholism

The various ways by which alcoholism can be controlled are as follows.

• Creating social barrier
• Screening individuals with the help of CAGE questionnaire
• Testing of genetic material predisposition
• Laboratory blood test
• Urine test
• Medication