Alcohol in America

Alcohol in America PDF

Author: United States Department of Transportation

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1985-02-01

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 0309034493

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Alcohol is a killerâ€"1 of every 13 deaths in the United States is alcohol-related. In addition, 5 percent of the population consumes 50 percent of the alcohol. The authors take a close look at the problem in a "classy little study," as The Washington Post called this book. The Library Journal states, "...[T]his is one book that addresses solutions....And it's enjoyably readable....This is an excellent review for anyone in the alcoholism prevention business, and good background reading for the interested layperson." The Washington Post agrees: the book "...likely will wind up on the bookshelves of counselors, politicians, judges, medical professionals, and law enforcement officials throughout the country."

Almost Alcoholic

Almost Alcoholic PDF

Author: Joseph Nowinski

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-13

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1616494255

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Determine if your drinking is a problem, develop strategies for curbing your intake, and measure your progress with this practical, engaging guide to taking care of yourself. Every day, millions of people drink a beer or two while watching a game, shake a cocktail at a party with friends, or enjoy a glass of wine with a good meal. For more than 30 percent of these drinkers, alcohol has begun to have a negative impact on their everyday lives. Yet, only a small number are true alcoholics--people who have completely lost control over their drinking and who need alcohol to function. The great majority are what Dr. Doyle and Dr. Nowinski call "Almost Alcoholics," a growing number of people whose excessive drinking contributes to a variety of problems in their lives.In Almost Alcoholic, Dr. Doyle and Dr. Nowinski give the facts and guidance needed to address this often unrecognized and devastating condition. They provide the tools toidentify and assess your patterns of alcohol use;evaluate its impact on your relationships, work, and personal well-being;develop strategies and goals for changing the amount and frequency of alcohol use;measure the results of applying these strategies; andmake informed decisions about your next steps.

Alcoholism in America

Alcoholism in America PDF

Author: Sarah W. Tracy

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2007-05-21

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 0801891671

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Despite the lack of medical consensus regarding alcoholism as a disease, many people readily accept the concept of addiction as a clinical as well as a social disorder. An alcoholic is a victim of social circumstance and genetic destiny. Although one might imagine that this dual approach is a reflection of today's enlightened and sympathetic society, historian Sarah Tracy discovers that efforts to medicalize alcoholism are anything but new. Alcoholism in America tells the story of physicians, politicians, court officials, and families struggling to address the danger of excessive alcohol consumption at the turn of the century. Beginning with the formation of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates in 1870 and concluding with the enactment of Prohibition in 1920, this study examines the effect of the disease concept on individual drinkers and their families and friends, as well as the ongoing battle between policymakers and the professional medical community for jurisdiction over alcohol problems. Tracy captures the complexity of the political, professional, and social negotiations that have characterized the alcoholism field both yesterday and today. Tracy weaves American medical history, social history, and the sociology of knowledge into a narrative that probes the connections among reform movements, social welfare policy, the specialization of medicine, and the social construction of disease. Her insights will engage all those interested in America's historic and current battles with addiction.

Drinking in America

Drinking in America PDF

Author: Susan Cheever

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 2015-10-13

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1455513865

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In DRINKING IN AMERICA, bestselling author Susan Cheever chronicles our national love affair with liquor, taking a long, thoughtful look at the way alcohol has changed our nation's history. This is the often-overlooked story of how alcohol has shaped American events and the American character from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Seen through the lens of alcoholism, American history takes on a vibrancy and a tragedy missing from many earlier accounts. From the drunkenness of the Pilgrims to Prohibition hijinks, drinking has always been a cherished American custom: a way to celebrate and a way to grieve and a way to take the edge off. At many pivotal points in our history-the illegal Mayflower landing at Cape Cod, the enslavement of African Americans, the McCarthy witch hunts, and the Kennedy assassination, to name only a few-alcohol has acted as a catalyst. Some nations drink more than we do, some drink less, but no other nation has been the drunkest in the world as America was in the 1830s only to outlaw drinking entirely a hundred years later. Both a lively history and an unflinching cultural investigation, DRINKING IN AMERICA unveils the volatile ambivalence within one nation's tumultuous affair with alcohol.

Alcohol in Latin America

Alcohol in Latin America PDF

Author: Gretchen Pierce

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2014-03-27

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0816599009

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Aguardente, chicha, pulque, vino—no matter whether it’s distilled or fermented, alcohol either brings people together or pulls them apart. Alcohol in Latin America is a sweeping examination of the deep reasons why. This book takes an in-depth look at the social and cultural history of alcohol and its connection to larger processes in Latin America. Using a painting depicting a tavern as a metaphor, the authors explore the disparate groups and individuals imbibing as an introduction to their study. In so doing, they reveal how alcohol production, consumption, and regulation have been intertwined with the history of Latin America since the pre-Columbian era. Alcohol in Latin America is the first interdisciplinary study to examine the historic role of alcohol across Latin America and over a broad time span. Six locations—the Andean region, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico—are seen through the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, art history, ethnohistory, history, and literature. Organized chronologically beginning with the pre-colonial era, it features five chapters on Mesoamerica and five on South America, each focusing on various aspects of a dozen different kinds of beverages. An in-depth look at how alcohol use in Latin America can serve as a lens through which race, class, gender, and state-building, among other topics, can be better understood, Alcohol in Latin America shows the historic influence of alcohol production and consumption in the region and how it is intimately connected to the larger forces of history.

Alcohol in America

Alcohol in America PDF

Author: Walter B. Clark

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1991-01-01

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 9780791406953

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This book is a definitive reference work on American drinking, presenting results that are not based on the skewed and captive samples found in hospital treatment settings, but rather on the general population. This means that the study addresses not only problem drinkers and drinking problems but also documents in rich detail the much more common drinking patterns of the vast majority of Americans. Special attention is given, for the first time in such surveys, to drinking patterns among Blacks and Hispanics.

The Spirits of America

The Spirits of America PDF

Author: Eric Burns

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9781592137695

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In The spirits of America, Burns relates that drinking was "the first national pastime," and shows how it shaped American politics and culture from the earliest colonial days. He details the transformation of alcohol from virtue to vice and back again and how it was thought of as both scourge and medicine. He tells us how "the great American thirst" developed over the centuries, and how reform movements and laws sprang up to combat it. Burns brings back to life such vivid characters as Carrie Nation and other crusaders against drink. He informs us that, in the final analysis, Prohibition, the culmination of the reformers' quest, had as much to do with politics and economics and geography as it did with spirituous beverage.

Alcoholism in North America, Europe, and Asia

Alcoholism in North America, Europe, and Asia PDF

Author: John E. Helzer

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9780195050905

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This volume represents a landmark in the important and rapidly expanding literature of cross-cultural epidemiology that has been made possible by the worldwide popularity of the DSM-III and the multi-national use of a single survey instrument: the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). Reviewing population survey findings across ten regions of North America, Europe, and Asia, this study is the first direct cross-national comparison of personal interview data on alcoholism, including prevalence rates and risk factors. The book carefully describes the background of the various surveys and the methods of analysis and comparison. Chapters on each region describe the prevalence of drinking problems, the symptomatic expression of alcoholism in that culture, aspects of the cultural background that are relevant to drinking behavior, and the association between alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders. Of particular importance in this volume is the inclusion of a chapter on alcoholism in the Socialist Republic of China, from which very little scientific information has been readily available. The inclusion of eastern and western cultural perspectives offers insight into both universal and culturally distinct aspects of alcoholism. The volume is essential reading for psychiatrists, epidemiologists, sociologists, and alcohol theorists, researchers and clinicians.

Facing Addiction in America

Facing Addiction in America PDF

Author: Office of the Surgeon General

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9781974580620

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All across the United States, individuals, families, communities, and health care systems are struggling to cope with substance use, misuse, and substance use disorders. Substance misuse and substance use disorders have devastating effects, disrupt the future plans of too many young people, and all too often, end lives prematurely and tragically. Substance misuse is a major public health challenge and a priority for our nation to address. The effects of substance use are cumulative and costly for our society, placing burdens on workplaces, the health care system, families, states, and communities. The Report discusses opportunities to bring substance use disorder treatment and mainstream health care systems into alignment so that they can address a person's overall health, rather than a substance misuse or a physical health condition alone or in isolation. It also provides suggestions and recommendations for action that everyone-individuals, families, community leaders, law enforcement, health care professionals, policymakers, and researchers-can take to prevent substance misuse and reduce its consequences.