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According to a study recently published in JAMA Psychiatry, one in eight American adults now meets the diagnostic criteria for alcoholism. Further, nearly one in four adults under age 30 met the diagnostic criteria for alcoholism.



The study also found that rates of alcoholism were higher among men (16.7 percent), Native Americans (16.6 percent), people below the poverty threshold (14.3 percent), and people living in the Midwest (14.8 percent).

The data used in the study comes from National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), which was administered by the National Institutes of Health.

To meet the diagnostic criteria for alcoholism, a person must either fit the criteria of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence.

For alcohol abuse, a person must exhibit at least one of the following things (from this National Institutes of Health list) in the past year:

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).

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).

Recurrent alcohol-related legal problems (e.g., arrests for alcohol-related disorderly conduct).

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).

For alcohol dependence, an individual must experience at least three of the following seven symptoms from this National Institutes of Health list:

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.

The characteristic withdrawal syndrome for alcohol; or drinking (or using a closely related substance) to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms.

Drinking in larger amounts or over a longer period than intended.

Persistent desire or one or more unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control drinking.

Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced because of drinking.

A great deal of time spent in activities necessary to obtain, to use, or to recover from the effects of drinking.

Continued drinking despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to be caused or exacerbated by drinking.

Disturbingly, alcohol use disorder rose by 49-percent in the first decade of the 2000s, and now affects 12.7-percent of the American population.

The study's lead author, Bridget Grant, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, talked about the reason she believes there was an increase. “I think the increases are due to stress and despair and the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism."



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 88,000 people die every year of alcohol-related causes.



Laura Beck Laura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.

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