Treat alcoholism and end alcohol abuse.

Alcoholism is a condition that results in the continued over-consumption of alcohol despite the negative health problems. It may also involve a preoccupation with the consumption of alcohol.

Alcoholism is a common disease that afflicts millions of people around the world.

Alcoholism is a disease.

While the ingestion of alcohol is obviously necessary to develop alcoholism, the use of alcohol does not necessarily predict the development of alcoholism as a disease. The quantity, frequency and regularity of alcohol consumption required to develop alcoholism varies greatly from person to person. In addition, although the biological mechanisms related to alcoholism are uncertain, some risk factors, including social environment, emotional health and genetic predisposition for alcoholism, have been identified as being related to alcoholism.

Diagnosis of Alcoholism

Multiple tools are available with the purpose of screening for alcoholism and alcohol abuse. Identifying alcoholism can be somewhat difficult because there are no detectable physiologic differences between a person who drinks frequently and a person with alcoholism. Identification usually involves an objective assessment regarding the damage that drinking alcohol does to the drinker's life compared to the subjective benefits that the drinker perceives from the consumption of alcohol. While there are many cases where an alcoholic's life has been significantly and obviously damaged by alcohol abuse, there are always borderline cases that can be difficult to classify one way or the other.