(Pixabay)
Prescription pill addiction – primarily the opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl – is not the only substance use disorder that’s on the rise. So is alcohol, the often forgotten “drug” that tops all other categories when it is counted.
Opioids were recently declared a national emergency, but researchers believe that heavy drinking may now be a public health crisis, based on the results of a new study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. A story on National Public Radio’s The Two-Way says “high-risk drinking is linked to a number of diseases and psychiatric problems, as well as violence, crime and crashes.”
The study defines “high risk” as more than five drinks in a day for men, four in a day for women. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism guidelines a “standard” drink is:
- 12 fl oz of regular beer
- 8-9 fl oz of malt liquor
- 5 fl oz of table wine
- 3-4 fl oz of sherry, port or other fortified wines
- 1.5 fl oz – a shot or “jigger” – of brandy, cognac or 80-proof distilled spirits: whiskey, gin, rum, vodka or tequila
Alcohol consumption continued to increase. From 2002 to 2013, overall drinking increased by 11% to almost 75 percent of all American adults. The percentage of people who drank heavily increased by almost 30%, but the increase was even larger for some specific groups, including:
- Women: 58%
- Older people: 65%
The number of people overall who have an alcohol use disorder (AUD) – abuse or dependence – also increased by almost 50%, but, again, it increased even more for specific groups:
- Women: almost 84%
- Black people: almost 93%
- Poor people: almost 66%
- Older people: more than 100%
The study doesn’t answer why these rates have gone up so much, or why why women, blacks and older people are going up so much faster than the population as a whole (except that women had a wider gap to begin with, which they have now almost closed). What’s worrisome is that older people can have have other infirmities that can be made worse by alcohol abuse, such as mental illness (dual diagnosis).
One thing’s clear: AUD is on the rise. While the opioid epidemic is a real problem, we must not forget to address alcoholism and alcohol dependence as well.
