ABSTRACT

Chronic, heavy alcohol consumption disrupts normal organ function and causes structural damage in virtually every tissue of the body. Current diagnostic terminology states that a person who drinks alcohol excessively has alcohol use disorder. The liver is especially susceptible to alcohol-induced damage. This review summarizes and describes the effects of chronic alcohol use not only on the liver, but also on other selected organs and systems affected by continual heavy drinking—including the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, heart, and bone. Most significantly, the recovery...

This report presents the current status of alcohol consumption, alcohol-attributable harms and the implementation of alcohol control policies in the WHO European Region, using available data from 2010, 2016 and 2019.

A detailed overview is provided of the implementation of alcohol policies described in the 10 action areas of the European Action Plan to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol 2012–2020 (EAPA), including the current status of implementation of the five action areas of the WHO-led SAFER initiative:

1. Strengthen restrictions on alcohol availability;
2. Advance and enforce drink...

The European Region has the highest level of alcohol consumption in the world.

To reduce these harms, WHO/Europe has identified three affordable, feasible and cost-effective intervention strategies:

• increase excise taxes on alcoholic beverages
• introduce and enforce bans or clear restrictions on exposure to alcohol advertising
• enact and enforce restrictions on the physical availability of retailed alcohol.

Here you can read about the successful outcomes in Lithuania, Scotland and the Russian Federation.

The Journal of Public Health has put together a selection of papers that highlights some of the most cited alcohol-related research published in the Journal of Public Health in recent years.

The collection starts with articles examining local and national alcohol policies, including those involving partnerships with the alcohol industry. The political influence of commercial actors, and their strategic use of corporate social responsibility, pose research questions that have the potential to inform the development of policy agendas.

Research focusing on relationships between alcohol use...

COURSE ON ALCOHOL TREATMENT RESEARCH REACHES ITS CONCLUSION

Time to recap the journey started over a year ago to update the Alcohol Treatment Matrix, a unique mapping of seminal and key research and guidance on alcohol brief interventions and different treatment domains, from the interventions through to whole treatment systems. Along the way we encountered research which set new directions, challenged orthodoxy, and confirmed or confounded ‘common sense’. We are immensely grateful to Alcohol Change UK for their funding and support. All the instalments remain available for you to dip in to...

The IAS Alcohol Knowledge Centre is home to an extensive library of information – infographics, factsheets and a host of related resources – about alcohol.

Topics covered:

• Alcohol across society
• Availability
• Consumption
• Health
• Marketing
• Price
• The Alcohol Industry
• Transport
• Violence and Crime

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WHY IS THE RECORD SO POOR?

The first cell of row 5 presented a catalogue of negative evaluations of attempts to treat problem drinking among sentenced offenders in Britain, a record also seen internationally. Much of the row effectively sought answers to the core question, ‘Why is the record so poor?’

To go direct to the featured section click the link below or paste it in to your web browser address box, being sure to enter the whole address:

https://findings.org.uk/PHP/dl.php?f=Matrix/Alcohol/A5.htm&s=ml&sf=mx&format=open#issue1

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BEYOND THE PATIENT: TREATMENT’S IMPACTS ON FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

Time to consolidate the lessons of row 5 of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. This final row defocused from the patient to ask what treatment can do for the rest of us in the form of reducing crime and safeguarding families and communities. Core theme was the playing out of the contradictions between segregation and punishment and reintegration and rehabilitation, explored at the level of interventions, client/offender-worker relationships, service management, treatment organisations, and...