Alcohol consumption on a global level varies greatly from country to country, as well as the levels of alcoholism. The curious aspect is why some countries in Europe can consume more alcohol per capita yet the rate of alcoholism can be so much lower than it is in the United States. Alcoholism is a growing problem in the United States and methods of drug treatment are, interestingly, targeting the trigger receptors of craving that lead to relapse instead of what parts of the brain that are affected directly after alcohol consumption. Whether social change or new drug development, a plan for treatment option or fixation will happen.
Alcoholism is classically defined as having signs of physical addiction to alcohol and continuing to drink, despite problems with physical health, mental health, and social, family, or job responsibilities. Alcohol may control your life and relationships. From this standpoint, around 15.1 million Americans are considered alcoholics, which seems like a crazy high number, at least to me. This is a problem with overconsumption, to the point of being socially unacceptable. The social aspect of drinking is often how alcohol is consumed in Europe, which could explain the discrepancies between consumption and abuse between countries. Europeans maintain the mindset to consume a few drinks with their friends and family communally to elevate the level of enjoyment of socialization. Americans rely more on social drinking to alleviate stress and “escape” the week’s worth of stress on their Friday and Saturday nights. From this, it’s easier to see how problems could be developed from associating drinking with two different purposes. Americans associate alcohol as a problem-solver such that there is a greater chance real abuse and problems, like alcoholism could develop. The discrepancy in drinking ages between countries could also be a contributing factor.
Aside from the associated social aspects that could be contributing, researchers have been identifying a number of pleasure receptors that could be blocked to stop the chances of relapse and urges to consume. Such receptors include cannabinoids and opioids. Current drugs for alcoholism treatment target these receptors with the goal of preventing relapse and craving symptoms. This is interesting since they don’t prevent the effects of alcohol, which could lead to elevated levels of drinking, instead of curing. Instead, the drug treatments want to stop an alcoholic from consuming even just one more drink and alleviating the chances that they will by making cravings less frequent and less intense. The unfortunate side of this treatment method is that only small specific areas of the brain are responsible for these cravings, while these drugs target a whole host of areas in a kind of flooding technique. Additionally, these drugs have not been proven in trials to be entirely effective versus a placebo. Only about 20-30% of alcoholics are actually treated from drug treatments effectively. This is a shockingly small amount for a success rate. The hopeful method of increasing this is to begin to individualize methods of treatment to help each individual’s reasoning and craving triggers with more than just a drug treatment method. This is the hopeful future of alcoholism treatment, and hopefully, it will work for those who are beginning to suffer.
I'm Cutting You Off! Treating Alcoholism
