According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, alcohol addiction accounts for 40 percent of the nearly 1.8 million people admitted into treatment annually for substance abuse. NITA reports statistics show 59 percent of all admitted were Caucasian, 21 percent were black, 14 percent were Latino or Hispanic, and the remaining 6 percent fell into another group including Alaska Natives, Native Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders. Researchers have also found other common trends in alcohol treatment.
Need vs Treatment
According to The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) findings in 2006, 23.6 million people needed treatment for alcohol and other drug abuse, while only 2.5 million received it at a facility specifically licensed for that purpose.
Workplace
NIDA reports that most binge and heavy drinkers do have jobs (about 75 percent), but as workers they change jobs often, miss work and are tardy regularly, accomplish less in a typical work day, are involved in more workplace accidents than the average employee, and are more likely to file a claim for unemployment compensation.
Abuse Patterns
National trends in alcohol use by under-aged individuals (ages 12 to 20) have remained unchanged since 2002, according to data from The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). For most under-aged drinkers there has been no change in reports of their last year of drinking behavior; however, in 8th graders there has been a substantial reduction of drinking behavior within the last year, by their reports. Statistically the reduction in the drinking of 8th graders declined from 46.5 percent to 31.8 percent.
Treatment Trends
The latest trends in the treatment of alcohol abuse include the use of two relatively new drugs, Naltrexone and Campral. In June of 2006, the first injectable medication was approved for the treatment of alcohol cravings. Vivitrol, a drug derived from naltrexone, is injected into the hip or buttocks on a monthly basis. Vivitrol is believed to relieve alcohol craving through blockage of brain neurotransmitters that are closely related to alcoholism and the craving response. Campral, another relatively new medication, is also used to reduce symptoms of craving in alcoholics.
Prevention
Trends in alcohol prevention involve using the Internet, and a NIDA-sponsored website encourages young teens not to cave in to peer pressure to use alcohol. NIDA maintains a site on the web called The Cool Spot, that provides information to young teens and answers questions related to how many people in their age group are actually using alcohol. The aim is to remove the power of peer pressure to drink by informing the young people of how few people their age are actually alcohol users. The premise of this site is that most young people believe a lie that more kids are actually drinking than is the case. The site uncovers the lie, and informs young teens that drinking is not the norm, and that everybody is not doing it.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) maintains a website for college students, their parents, their faculties and administrations entitled College Drinking---Changing the Culture. The website provides alcohol-related information to all involved in college life in an attempt to change the culture of alcohol abuse that exists on college campuses.
Tags: National Institute, treatment alcohol, young teens, drinking behavior, Institute Drug, Institute Drug Abuse