Damages of alcoholism or alcohol and treatment measures

The Journal of the American Medical Association defines alcoholism as "the primary chronic disease characterized by alcohol control disorders, alcohol dependence, continued alcohol consumption despite negative consequences, and impaired thinking."

The DSM-IV (diagnostic standard in psychiatry and physiology) defines alcoholism as the repeated drinking of alcohol despite the negative consequences of recurrence.

According to the APA Dictionary of Psichologic, alcoholism is the everyday name of the term alcohol dependence. It should be noted that there is debate about what type of dependence is implied: physical (characterized by abstinence syndrome), psychological (based on the strengthening of the conditioned reflex), or both.

History of the study: The term chronic alcoholism was first used in 1849 by the Swedish physician and public figure M. Guss used to describe. But for a long time there was no difference between drunkenness and alcoholism. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, alcohol dependence was commonly referred to as dipsomania, but now the term has a different meaning. The notions of alcoholism as a disease are strengthened by the works of E. Krepelin, K. Bongefera, E. Bleuler, S. S. Korsakov, S. G. Jislin, I. V. Strelchuk. Alcoholism was recognized as a disease in 1952 by the World Health Organization.

The active component of alcohol - ethanol - is rapidly absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, enters the human brain and communicates with nerve cells.

The concentration of ethanol in the blood reaches its maximum 45-90 minutes after drinking alcohol. Ethanol is excreted unchanged in the lungs, kidneys, milk and sweat glands, feces, and mainly through biotransformation in the liver. During the first day, the body continues to remove and break down alcohol: oxidation in the cytosol: C2H5O + 2HAD = C2H4O + 2HAD ^ H - the main route of excretion in healthy people, metabolizing 70-80% ethanol. Oxidation of the liver using the microsomal ethanol oxidation system. Finally, tissue oxidation using catalase, oxidase and peroxides. In healthy people, it accounts for 15% of ethanol metabolism, and in patients with alcoholism, its content increases. Liver cirrhosis is a very common disease and its main cause is alcoholism. Alcohol poisoning can cause a person to lose consciousness and lose consciousness.

Alcoholism affects all forms of individual and social life. Under the influence of alcohol, people lose their sense of responsibility to society and the state, and may engage in other acts related to hooliganism and breaking the law. Alcohol harms production, disrupts labor discipline and reduces productivity, leading to illness and even premature death. Accidents are caused by a person's inability to maintain a good balance in intoxication, distraction and inability to know the situation around them. If a person consumes too much chronic alcohol, alcohol dependence can develop. If a person who is addicted to alcohol suddenly stops consuming alcohol or significantly reduces it, a war of attrition has been observed for various misconduct.

According to a study by a group of scientists, the development of alcoholism can be divided into several groups: early, middle and late symptoms. The initial stage is mainly the emergence of an excessive tendency to alcohol and an increase in resistance to it, loss of the protective reflex of vomiting, intoxication in secret or alone, inability to control the amount of alcohol consumed, perforated amnesia, is characterized only by the fact that the desire to drink is ingrained in the brain, the emergence of a state of weakness (asthenia) when abstaining from alcohol. In the middle stage - a significant increase in resistance to alcohol, "alcohol starvation" -the emergence of a state of humor, alcohol dependence, alcohol psychosis and mental decline. The latter stage is characterized by intolerance to alcohol, periodic drinking, mental and physical weakness, dysfunction of nerves and internal organs, dyspepsia, acute and chronic alcohol psychosis, memory and memory impairment. Alcoholism affects all systems and organs in the human body. An alcoholic does not know the amount of alcohol he drinks, the central and peripheral nervous systems are disturbed (mental illness, neuritis and other diseases occur), and the function of internal organs is impaired. The toxic effects of alcohol lead to metabolic disorders, especially vitamin metabolism. An alcoholic may have tremors in his fingers, eyelids, and tongue, and he may not be able to do the normal things he does every day. People who drink a lot often have blurred vision and sometimes severe hearing loss. As a result of the effects of alcohol on the stomach, all the functions of this organ are impaired. Alcohol causes liver damage, especially liver cirrhosis. Alcoholism also causes pancreatitis, diabetes, angina pectoris and myocardial infarction.

Alcohol damages the endocrine glands and, above all, the gonads, causing the client to shrink and become impotent. Women are more likely to die from alcoholism. Decreased pinkness and various complications during pregnancy are common. Regular drinking can lead to premature aging and disability. The most common cause of death in alcoholism is cardiovascular disease. In particular, alcohol causes myocardial injury, leads to the development of chronic heart failure and increases the risk of death-threatening ventricular fibrillation. Alcoholics are more likely to commit suicide and have life-threatening accidents.

Treatment of alcoholism: Treatment of alcoholism should focus on all the causes of its occurrence: biological, psychological, social (at least therapy is aimed at changing family relationships, as well as social and occupational adaptation of the patient with alcoholism should be). In other words, the treatment of alcoholism in a modern form should be comprehensive and include not only biological therapy, but also various forms of psychotherapy, as well as social measures. It is necessary to consult a narcologist to treat alcoholism. Basically, in the fight against alcoholism, it should be taken seriously, without indifference. Strict administrative penalties should be imposed on those who consume alcohol in public places.

Fighting alcoholism. Globally, alcohol policy is implemented by the World Health Organization. In May 2010, the World Health Assembly in Geneva adopted the Global Strategy for Reducing Alcohol Abuse. The measures envisaged in the report include limiting the number of points of sale of alcohol and reducing the time of sale, increasing retail prices for alcohol, informing the public about the dangers of alcohol, gradually reducing the permissible level of alcohol in the blood of drivers and others were present.

By the nineteenth century, it was believed that alcoholism would also increase as the welfare of the population increased. The World Health Organization estimates that the number of cases of alcoholism in the world is steadily increasing: in 2000, about 140 million people worldwide were addicted to alcohol, and in 2010 the figure reached 208 million: with this trend, by 2050, the number of alcoholics in the world could exceed these figures, which means 500 million out of 9.5 billion people, or one in 19 people.