Alcohol can interfere with a person’s ability to care for their other medical conditions or make other medical conditions worse. The study found that the participants’ alcohol consumption dropped significantly over the study period. Several investigators have looked at extending and augmenting currently used behavioral treatment strategies to address specific subgroups of AOD-dependent patients. One group of researchers has focused on the effects of enhanced treatment for homeless people with AOD-use disorders. These investigators conducted a series of studies of a multi-stage therapy including intensive day therapy, followed by reduced-intensity treatment combined with work therapy and access to housing.

• A recent review of studies assessing the cost-effectiveness of continuing care (Popovici et al. 2007) concluded that continuing care models encompassing different treatment modalities can be cost-effective and can yield a cost benefit.
• Another way that your doctor can diagnose you with alcohol addiction is by using the ;DSM’s 11 criteria of addiction.
• It’s understandable if you think that “chronic disease” and “alcoholism” are unrelated topics.
• Treatment for alcoholism often involves a combination of therapy, medication, and support.
• Thus, at all times during the telephone contacts, it is important that the counselor be on the lookout for signs of trouble in what the patient says (or does not say), and that the counselor immediately addresses such issues.
• This means they can be especially helpful to individuals at risk for relapse to drinking.

Understanding Alcohol Use Disorder

The most important goal of treatment obviously is to help the patient live without alcohol or other drugs. This also means, however, that an influence that played a central role in the patient’s life—even if the consequences generally were detrimental— is taken away from him or her, which may lead to a feeling of deprivation. Particularly for patients who do not (yet) suffer the most severe consequences of AOD use and are not ready to change their behavior, such an approach may have little appeal and will not be able to engage the patient’s motivation and participation. Therefore, it is important that treatment participation offers additional benefits to the patient. These could be monetary incentives; support with housing, employment, or AOD-free social activities that are contingent on abstinence; or the feeling of belonging to a supportive community, such as AA.

What is a Chronic Disease?

• AUD is a condition in which a person is unable to stop using alcohol despite negative consequences.
• Many people with AUD do recover, but setbacks are common among people in treatment.
• Imagine feeling unable to say ‘no’ to alcohol, even when it jeopardizes your health, job, or relationships.
• Of these, 10 studies included patients with alcohol use disorders and 10 included patients with drug or AOD use disorders.
• Other ways to get help include talking with a mental health professional or seeking help from a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar type of self-help group.

Research shows that those who begin drinking before 15 are more than three times as likely to report AUD within the past year than those who start at age 21 or older. No matter how much you drink or how long you have been drinking, the best place for you is at a rehab clinic that specialises in treating alcohol addiction. While alcohol addiction has the potential to destroy your life and affect your relationships, finances, employment and health, it is possible to recover from this disease.

Mental Obsession

Moderate drinking is having one drink or less in a day for women, or two drinks or less in a day for men. The AMA promotes the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health. The high court’s first reference to AMA policy defining alcoholism as a disease came in a dissenting opinion in a case the majority decided not to consider. The 1966 case, Budd v. California, posed the question of whether it is constitutional for California to punish someone who suffers from alcoholism, not just someone who periodically voluntarily overindulges. Supreme Court has looked to AMA policies and an amicus brief to help it first establish that alcoholism is in fact a disease. Third, the magnitude of the observed effects varied substantially between studies and sometimes was relatively small.

• Consistent heavy drinking can cause irreversible damage, resulting in severe conditions such as liver disease or alcohol-related dementia.
• Alcohol use disorder can include periods of being drunk (alcohol intoxication) and symptoms of withdrawal.
• It is important to note, however, that in many cases these studies compared the extended intervention with some form of “treatment as usual” rather than with a shorter version of the extended intervention.
• In recent years, however, treatment programs based on the Minnesota Model have become more flexible, particularly during the continuing-care phase.

Signs of Alcoholism as a Chronic Disease

Several such interventions have been developed (e.g., Horng and Chueh 2004); this sidebar describes one protocol developed at the University of Pennsylvania (McKay et al. 2004, 2005). Patients in the integrated treatment exhibited greater participation in both medical and addiction treatment as well as better alcohol use outcomes. Although further research is needed to investigate this approach, these studies indicate that extended treatment in a medical care setting may be effective for managing patients with coexisting medical problems.

Research on the science of addiction Why Alcoholism is Considered a Chronic Disease and the treatment of substance use disorders has led to the development of research-based methods that help people to stop using drugs and resume productive lives, also known as being in recovery. Another recently developed approach to continuing care relies on self-monitoring—that is, AOD users self-report their AOD use and other factors on a regular basis, which is hypothesized to motivate reductions in AOD use over time. This strategy makes use of such innovative methods as interactive voice response (IVR), whereby participants call into a computer system that prompts them to answer questions via their telephone keypads. Helzer and colleagues (2002) tested this approach in a study of heavy drinkers who were not seeking treatment, asking them to report their alcohol use daily for 2 years. The study found that self-reported alcohol use declined by about 20 percent from year 1 to year 2.