×

A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry this month finds that the rate of alcohol use disorder (i.e., alcoholism) rose by 49 percent in the first decade of the 2000s. One in eight American adults, or 12.7 percent of the U.S. population, now meets diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder, according to the study.

Here are nine things you should know about the problem of alcohol abuse in America:

1. The most commonly used diagnostic tool to determine alcohol abuse is the DSM-IV-TR, which defines it as a maladaptive pattern of drinking, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by at least one of the following occurring within a 12-month period: (1) Recurrent use of alcohol resulting in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home (e.g., repeated absences or poor work performance related to alcohol use; alcohol-related absences, suspensions, or expulsions from school; neglect of children or household); (2) Recurrent alcohol use in situations in which it is physically hazardous (e.g., driving an automobile or operating a machine when impaired by alcohol use); (3) Recurrent alcohol-related legal problems (e.g., arrests for alcohol-related disorderly conduct); (4) Continued alcohol use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of alcohol (e.g., arguments with spouse about consequences of intoxication); and (5) Never met criteria for alcohol dependence.

2. The DSM-IV-TR defines alcohol dependence as a maladaptive pattern of drinking, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by three or more of the following occurring at any time in the same 12-month period: (1) Need for markedly increased amounts of alcohol to achieve intoxication or desired effect; or markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of alcohol; (2) The characteristic withdrawal syndrome for alcohol; or drinking (or using a closely related substance) to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms; (3) Drinking in larger amounts or over a longer period than intended; (4) Persistent desire or one or more unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control drinking; (5) Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced because of drinking; (6) A great deal of time spent in activities necessary to obtain, to use, or to recover from the effects of drinking; (7) Continued drinking despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to be caused or exacerbated by drinking; (8) No duration criterion separately specified, but several dependence criteria must occur repeatedly as specified by duration qualifiers associated with criteria (e.g., “persistent,” “continued”).

3. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL. This typically occurs after four drinks for women and five drinks for men—in about two hours. In 2015, 26.9 percent of people ages 18 or older reported that they engaged in binge drinking in the past month

4. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) defines heavy alcohol use as binge drinking on five or more days in the past month. In 2015, 7 percent of people ages 18 or older reported that they engaged in heavy alcohol use in the past month

5. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition in a child that results from alcohol exposure during the mother’s pregnancy. According to the Mayo Clinic, the problems caused by fetal alcohol syndrome vary from child to child, but defects such as brain damage and growth problems caused by fetal alcohol syndrome are not reversible. The prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome is estimated to be two to seven cases per 1,000, and the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders to be as high as 20 to 50 cases per 1,000. (As the Mayo Clinic notes, there is no amount of alcohol that’s known to be safe to consume during pregnancy. If you drink during pregnancy, you place your baby at risk of fetal alcohol syndrome.)

6. An estimated 88,009 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the fourth-leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Of the 9,967 people who died in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in 2014, there were 6,391 drivers (64 percent) with BACs of 0.08 g/dL or higher. The remaining fatalities consisted of 2,752 motor vehicle occupants (28 percent) and 824 non-occupants (8 percent).

7. An estimated 623,000 adolescents ages 12 to 17 (2.5 percent of this age group) had alcohol use disorder. This number includes 298,000 males (2.3 percent of males in this age group) and 325,000 females (2.7 percent of females in this age group). An estimated 37,000 adolescents (22,000 males and 15,000 females) received treatment for an alcohol problem in a specialized facility in 2015.

8. In 2015, 33.1 percent of 15-year-olds report that they have had at least one drink in their lives. About 7.7 million people ages 12 to 20 (20.3 percent of this age group) reported drinking alcohol in the past month (19.8 percent of males and 20.8 percent of females). Approximately 5.1 million people (about 13.4 percent) ages 12 to 20 (13.4 percent of males and 13.3 percent of females) reported binge drinking in the past month, and approximately 1.3 million people (about 3.3 percent) ages 12 to 20 (3.6 percent of males and 3.0 percent of females) reported heavy alcohol use in the past month.

9. Roughly 20 percent of college students meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder, causing a variety of problems for themselves and their peers. About one in four college students report academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind in class, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall. Researchers also estimate that each year 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking, and 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.

Other posts in this series:

History of the Homeschooling Movement • Eugenics • North Korea • Ramadan • Black Hebrew Israelites • Neil Gorsuch and Supreme Court Confirmations • International Women’s Day • Health Effects of Marijuana • J. R. R. Tolkien • Aleppo and the Syrian Crisis • Fidel Castro • C.S. Lewis • ESV Bible • Alzheimer’s Disease •  Mother Teresa • The Opioid Epidemic • The Olympic Games • Physician-Assisted Suicide • Nuclear Weapons • China’s Cultural Revolution • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Harriet Tubman • Autism • Seventh-day Adventism • Justice Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) • Female Genital Mutilation • Orphans • Pastors • Global Persecution of Christians (2015 Edition) • Global Hunger • National Hispanic Heritage Month • Pope Francis • Refugees in America • Confederate Flag Controversy • Elisabeth Elliot • Animal Fighting • Mental Health • Prayer in the Bible • Same-sex Marriage • Genocide • Church Architecture • Auschwitz and Nazi Extermination Camps • Boko Haram • Adoption • Military Chaplains • Atheism • Intimate Partner Violence • Rabbinic Judaism • Hamas • Male Body Image Issues • Mormonism • Islam • Independence Day and the Declaration of Independence • Anglicanism • Transgenderism • Southern Baptist Convention • Surrogacy • John Calvin • The Rwandan Genocide • The Chronicles of Narnia • The Story of Noah • Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church • Pimps and Sex Traffickers • Marriage in America • Black History Month • The Holocaust • Roe v. Wade • Poverty in America • Christmas • The Hobbit • Council of Trent • Halloween and Reformation Day • Casinos and Gambling • Prison Rape • 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing • Chemical Weapons • March on Washington • Duck Dynasty • Child Brides • Human Trafficking • Scopes Monkey Trial • Social Media • Supreme Court’s Same-Sex Marriage Cases • The Bible • Human Cloning • Pornography and the Brain • Planned Parenthood • Boston Marathon Bombing • Female Body Image Issues • Islamic State

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

Podcasts

LOAD MORE
Loading