Definitions
Alcohol abuse is a pattern of drinking that results in harm to one’s health, interpersonal relationships, or ability to work. According to Gelder, Mayou & Geddes (2005) alcohol abuse is linked with suicide. They state the risk of suicide is high in older men who have a history of drinking, as well as those suffering from depression. Certain manifestations of alcohol abuse include failure to fulfill responsibilities at work, school, or home; drinking in dangerous situations, including the operation of a motor vehicle; legal concerns associated with alcohol use; and continued drinking despite problems that are caused or worsened by drinking. Alcohol abuse can lead to alcohol dependence. Proposed changes to the DSM-IV to the DSM-V are expected to combine alcohol abuse with alcohol dependence to create one unified disorder, alcohol use disorder (AUD), that would include graded clinical severity from moderate to severe with at least 2 criteria to make diagnoses. For adolescents, the DSM-V proposes that diagnoses meeting 2 or 3 criteria would be similar to alcohol abuse while meeting over 4 criteria would be equivalent to alcohol dependence when compared to the DSM-IV.
Alcohol abuse has both short-term and long-term risks. If a person drives while drunk or regularly consuming binge drinks (more than five standard drinks in one drinking session), they are considered to have been involved in alcohol abuse. Short-term abuses of alcohol include, but are not limited to, violence, injuries, unprotected sexual activities and, additionally, social and financial problems.
The older adult population (over 65 years) is frequently overlooked when discussing alcohol abuse. A smaller volume of consumed alcohol has a greater impact on the older adult than it does on a younger individual. As a result the American Geriatrics Society recommends for an older adult with no known risk factors less than one drink a day or fewer than two drinks per occasion regardless of gender, this is less than current recommendations of maximum alcohol consumption per week, for adults noted to be nine drinks for a male and seven for a female.
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