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Guidelines for new contributors

Welcome to alcoholism! To avoid common issues that have arisen in the past, please familiarize yourself with the following commonsense guidelines:

This article is for:

facts about alcoholism
facts about all conditions commonly called "alcoholism"
all sides of alcoholism (biological, social, psychological, legal, etc.)
standard terminology related to alcoholism
historical perspectives on alcoholism
modern perspectives on alcoholism
a summary of the disease theory of alcoholism

This article is not for:

unrelated facts about alcohol
debating the "correct" definition of alcoholism
opinions on alcohol or alcoholics
creating new terminology
advertising alcohol/alcoholism related websites
debate over the disease theory of alcoholism

Things to keep in mind:

Please base statements on reputable sources such as published studies and books.
Whenever possible, cite original sources rather than secondary books/articles/websites.
"Alcoholism" means different things to different people, if you say "alcoholism" or "alcoholic" make sure the definition you are referring to is apparent.

Forms of Alcoholism

There are at least two forms of alcoholism with no professional differentiation between them. Those who study one of them tend to insist that their form is the one and only true alcoholism, and this has resulted in a great deal of professional disagreement. The following few paragraphs are a description of these two forms based on research performed while writing this article. This should not be considered authoritative, and cannot go into the main article due to "original research" limitations, but I am presenting it here as a guide for those who wish to contribute to the article, to help them understand the considerations that have gone into it.

The first is the psychological/social addiction which comes about during a period of a person's life when alcohol consumption is of significant benefit to a person. This period may be a one time thing (like during college or after a divorce), or it may be a recurring thing (like that semi-annual girls night out or company party). This perception of benefit is often carried over for a considerable time after the benefit ceases to exist. This form of alcoholism can run rampant across the person's life until others help them realize that alcohol isn't providing benefit to match the problems it's causing.

The second form of alcoholism is a physiological condition in which the person's endorphin system convinces them that drinking alcohol is beneficial to them. It is essentially identical to a morphine or heroin addiction (endorphin being "endogenous morphine"), but is triggered by the consumption of alcohol (which releases endorphins into our system), and therefore alcohol consumption is the behavior that it reinforces. This form of alcoholism completely defies logic and sensibility, and often requires severely traumatic consequences to occur before the alcoholic is willing to admit that they have a problem. Even then they are often unable to quit drinking without assistance.

This results in several misperceptions of alcoholism. The most damaging one is due to differences in endorphin production and reception. Only about one sixth of the population is susceptible to the second form of alcoholism. This means that the majority of people who have suffered from the first type don't understand why the second type can't just quit.

In any case, the word Alcoholism does apply to both forms without differentiation, and therefore you will notice a few compromises in this article which are designed to reflect that unofficial duality.

Robert Rapplean 21:53, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Maybe the form of addiction is related to the substance used? I have heard of no one who has died an alcoholic from drinking beer. All the alcoholics I have known or know of favor spirits. Can anyone contest this?

peer review/copy editing, October 2006

Originally finding edge into this article via it's Peer Review request, i've finally finished and even done a good deal of copyediting along the way. Some overall comments:

This article needs forked articles; identification/diagnosis, effects and treatment are all too long & multifacited to not do so. I meant, this article is big, like 30k, and it gets a little tough to stick with the article when it's this daunting. It took me like a week to get through it myself for Peer Review/Copyedit.

More cites. It isn't usually an NPOV thing, but alcoholism is a very studied condition, and there just isn't any excuse not to have a shit-ton of sources to this baby. Someone might also look around userpages for a substance abuse counselor or something to help with these.

A lot of the sections seem sort of disconnected; i even caught a few repeats of something that had been said in a previous part of the article. Like a good essay, each needs to lead into each other to make a better flow.

Stop using that damn word 'result'. ;) Getting 'results' is one thing, but having everything 'the result of this' and 'resulting in that' makes this article seem like a robot.

As previously mentioned, more diagrams and images would better this article. Also, i know there is a ton of statistics out there, and it'd be great to have this article peppered in them.

Anyways, i've really enjoyed working on this baby, and i'll be around to help it out. JoeSmack ^Talk 17:55, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

genetic testing

At least one genetic test exists for a predisposition to alcoholism and opiate addiction. Human dopamine receptor genes have a detectable variation referred to as the DRD2 TaqI polymporphism. Those who possess the A1 allele variation of this polymorphism have a small but significant predisposition towards addiction to opiates and endorphin releasing drugs like alcohol. Although this allele is more common in alcoholics and opiate addicts, it is by itself inadequate to explain the full effect of, or be a reliable predictor of alcoholism.

Which would it be, the small yet significant predisposition, or inadequate to explain/be a predictor to alcoholism? If it isn't significant, the word significant could be removed and it'd be fine. If it is, I'd say how that plays into its role as an indentifier but not a predictor. The wording is just a little ambigious here (one of those wtf moments). JoeSmack ^Talk 15:51, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

At least one genetic test exists for an allele that is correlated to alcoholism and opiate addiction. Human dopamine receptor genes have a detectable variation referred to as the DRD2 TaqI polymporphism. Those who possess the A1 allele variation of this polymorphism have a small but significant tendancy towards addiction to opiates and endorphin releasing drugs like alcohol. Although this allele is slightly more common in alcoholics and opiate addicts, it is not by itself an adequate predictor of alcoholism.

screening

i think that the screening section either should be the CAGE questionnaire and one more example, or they all need to be flushed out in more detail. right now it looks like a bunch of edits people crammed together. JoeSmack ^Talk 16:08, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

P.S. The DSM-IV diagnosis of alcohol dependence represents another approach to the definition of alcoholism, one more closely based on specifics than the 1992 committee definition. - wtf is the 1992 committee definition? not mentioned anywhere else. JoeSmack ^Talk 16:11, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Ah, right. That was part of the introduction that we had such extensive disagreement about. For those who are new to this, you can find much of that argument in Archive 3. The short version is that a lot of it was replaced because it used categorizations that are not comprehensible to the average reader. It also resulted in the moving of the disease discussion to its own page. Robert Rapplean 17:04, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I would like to suggest the addition of Internet-based alcohol screening resources available as a public service, as they can be very useful. One such resource is AlcoholScreening.org, devleoped by Boston University School of Public Health (full disclosure: I helped develop this website). This site provides screening results based on the AUDIT and U.S. Dietary guidelines for alcohol consumption. There is at least one such site in the United Kingdom based on its health service guidelines, one in Australia, and so on. There are a few such commercial services as well, although I am initially inclined to list only those Internet public service (free) screening sites which are sponsored by a credible source, i.e. a University, qualified health facility, or a governmental health agency. These tools do not exclusively screen for alcohol dependence (alcoholism) but also cover hazardously excessive consumption that may cause future problems or put one at risk for immediate consequences such as accidents. The best ones are nonjudgemental and non-labeling. I am quite willing to contribute this content, but I would appreciate guidance on where and how to do so. Should this be a new item under Screening? Should it go at the end under "see also?" Other suggestions? Er

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