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Alcohol Abuse and the Elderly: The Hidden Population

alcohol withdra we share a tough history with alcohol. During the later component from the 19th century, politicians, women's groups, and churches banded together to convince lawmakers to outlaw alcohol. In 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the 18th Amendment, creating the sale and distribution of alcohol illegal. Alcohol consumption declined but did not prevent illegal use and distribution. In 1933, Prohibition ended and as being a result, millions of People in the usa have produced alcohol an important component of their social activity. In the 1960s, researcher E.M. Jellinek reported that excessive and abusive use of alcohol was a disease. Within 10 years, a public effort was launched within the United States to educate men and women that alcoholism was an illness.

In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 3rd refined the definition of alcoholism by differentiating among alcohol abuse and dependence. However, persons continue to use the word "alcoholism" once they discuss all types of "problem drinking," after actually alcoholism and abuse have particular clinical definitions. Alcoholism, also called alcohol dependence, is really a chronic, progressive, and potentially a fatal disease. The symptoms are: drinking excessive amounts frequently, inability to manage drinking despite medical, psychological, or social complications, elevated tolerance for alcohol, and serious withdrawal symptoms when the person stop drinking.

acne another hand, alcohol abuse is often a chronic disease wherever the person refuses to give up drinking while it factors the person to neglect significant family members and work obligations. However, abuse, left untreated, can turn into dependence. The symptoms are: drinking as soon as it's harmful (drinking and driving), typical excessive drinking, interpersonal difficulties with family, friends, and coworkers caused by alcohol, and legal problems related to alcohol use.

The National Institutes of Well being (NIH) estimates that in 1998, alcoholism price society $184.6 billion in lost productivity, medical care, legal services, and cost from visitors accidents. However, these statistics does not address the cost, to society, or the dilemma of alcohol dependence between the elderly the "hidden population."

It looks that alcohol abuse between older adults is anything few want to talk about, including a difficulty for which even less seek treatment on their own. Too often, family are ashamed from the issue and pick not to confront it head on. Wellness care providers usually do not ask older patients about alcohol use if it wasn't a issue in their lives in earlier years. This may possibly explain why so several in the alcohol-related admissions to treatment between older adults are for first-time treatment.