Researchers from the Departments of Psychiatry (PTM, RAD, MNP) and Child Study Center (MNP) at Yale University’s School of Medicine examined data from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to assess the prevalence of multiple psychiatric disorders—including alcohol abuse, nicotine dependence, mania, schizoid personality disorder, panic disorder—in both male and female children. Lead researcher Peter Morgan and his team studied 23,006 males and 17,368 females who grew up with and without an alcohol abusing mother or father, and measured the occurrence of disorders based on gender and maternal or paternal alcoholism.

As a result, researchers found a higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children of alcoholic parents than children without a history of familial alcohol abuse, regardless of their gender and the gender of the alcoholic parent. However, the gender of the alcohol abusing parent and their child created differing increases in the pervasiveness of specific disorders. For example, sons of alcoholic fathers were associated with an increased risk of mania, but sons of alcoholic mothers were at higher risk of panic disorder. Female offspring showed the greatest disparity among psychiatric risks. Daughters of alcoholic fathers were associated with an increased risk of alcohol abuse, but daughters of alcoholic mothers were associated with increased risk of nicotine dependence, alcohol abuse, mania, and schizoid personality disorder. Female children of alcohol abusing mothers were at the greatest risk of adulthood psychiatric illness than any other child-parent ratio.

Alcohol use disorders may directly affect the health, behavior, and productivity of the individual experiencing it, but ultimately alcoholism is a family disease. Not only does the alcoholic’s behavior affect their relationships with family members, causing various behavioral and developmental problems, but their dependencies have shown to cause specific effects on their offspring’s psychopathology that otherwise could have been prevented. During adolescence, children of alcoholic parents are susceptible to the negative effects of a parent’s drinking problem, and as adults these children face the greatest risk of essentially every type of chronic mental illness. Based on the finding from this new study, specialized intervention and prevention strategies can be implemented that target the psychiatric disorders that are specific to gender-related influences between parents and their offspring. The greater occurrence of multiple psychiatric disorders among daughters of alcoholic mothers, for example, can help families, medical professionals, and policymakers identify individuals that are at highest risk and encourage preventative strategies to aid these families.

The Yale’s research team’s study is available online and in the October 2010 print issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Sources: Morgan, Peter T., Rani A. Desai, and Marc N. Potenza. October, 2010. Gender-Related Influences of Parental Alcoholism on the Prevalence of Psychiatric Illnesses: Analysis of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Published online July 20, 2010. DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01263.x.

HealthDay News, Mom’s Alcoholism Especially Tough on Daughter’s Mental Health, July 20, 2010

The researchers surveyed 1,910 people with alcohol-related problems, and 14.7 percent used clergy services. Most of those who used clergy services also used professional services, and only .5 percent used clergy services just for their problems with alcohol.

Examining the use of clergy services among people who sought treatment for alcohol abuse and comparing the characteristics of the people who used clergy services with those of people who used other types of services to seek help, the researchers found that many people who used clergy services were Black, between the ages of 35 and 54, had a history of alcohol dependence, and suffered from depression or personality disorders They also found that people who were alcohol dependent were more likely to have used clergy services for alcohol-related problems than people who weren’t alcohol dependent or didn’t abuse alcohol.

Amy Bohnert, Ph.D., M.H.S., lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, said their findings suggest that people who can be classified as alcohol abusers tend to have problems with the legal system, work, and social situations, and may be more likely to be placed in treatment through social services or the courts.

Brian Perron, assistant professor of social work at the University of Michigan, said that rabbits, priests, ministers, and other clergy members are in an ideal position to help addicts because they are involved in their communities and see their congregants on a regular basis, which allows them to notice changes in behavior. Clergy are also often highly regarded by their community, especially in African American communities. Congregates also tend to feel that they can talk to clergy members in confidence.

Source: Science Daily, Individuals Confess Alcohol Abuse to Clergy, July 14, 2010

Prior addiction research has shown that many negative childhood experiences–such as neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and the presence of mental illness or substance abuse in the household–compound an individual’s risk of psychological disorders as an adolescent or adult. Although several studies have demonstrated much higher rates of alcohol consumption among American and European young adults than those in Africa, not much data has been presented on the propensity of African adolescent alcohol abuse and other behavioral disorders related to early developmental influences. Even though African teenagers have lower alcohol consumption rates, they are still at high risk of contracting diseases or disorders attributable to drunkenness and risky behavior.

This latest study by researchers at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya examined the prevalence of alcohol abuse among sub-Saharan teenagers and their associations with specific influences of childhood maltreatment. Lead researcher Dr. Caroline Kabiru and her team surveyed a total of 9,189 teenagers ages 12 to 19 on their levels of drunkenness as well as the presence of various risk factors including insecure food supplies in the household, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and living with a family member who had a drinking problem. Participants in the study were from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, or Uganda. Researchers controlled such factors as the teenager’s country, place of residence, gender of the teenager’s head of household, living arrangements, and personal elements including the teenager’s gender, age, religiosity, school status, and marital status during their analysis.

As a result, researchers found that approximately 9% of the adolescents reported drunkenness within the past 12 months. Overall, the presence of any of the childhood risk factors measured was attributed to increased levels of drunkenness among adolescents. For males, those who had experienced physical abuse or lived with a problem drinker prior to the age of 10 were most likely to have reported drunkenness. For females, having a family history of alcoholism, being sexually abused, or experiencing physical abuse during childhood increased their likelihood to report problem drinking. 

The association between early childhood adverse events and future problem drinking was more prominent in female adolescents. Females were also more likely than males to be coerced into sex, and even more females were coerced into other acts of sexual nature during childhood. For both genders, adolescents who had experienced more than one adverse event during childhood had graded increases in risk of future drunkenness. In general, males were more likely than females to be currently enrolled in school and to live with both biological parents. Although only 6% of all respondents had ever been married, females were much more likely than males to be married.

The researchers point to their findings as evidence for the need of early intervention and treatment strategies for children who undergo abuse, trauma, or neglect in order to prevent problem alcohol use in later life.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examined the frequency of binge drinking in relation to individuals’ perceptions of their own health, and found that binge drinkers are 13 to 23 percent more likely to report suboptimal health.

The study, which will be published in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, examined 200,587 adult drinkers who participated in the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which asked participants to rate their health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor.

The researchers then estimated the prevalence of binge drinking and heavy drinking, along with the frequency of binge drinking during a 30-day period. Binge drinking was defined as four or more drinks per drinking session for women and five or more for men. They then divided the self-reports into two categories: optimal health (excellent, very good, or good) and suboptimal (fair or poor).

James Tasi, corresponding author for the study and an epidemiologist at the CDC, said that self-related health is a single question that has been used by many health surveys to measure perception of health, and is a strong predictor of eventual morbidity and mortality.

Robert D. Brewer, the CDC’s alcohol program leader, said that binge drinking is a dangerous pattern that can result in a variety of health and social problems, from potentially fatal car accidents to violence and risky sexual behavior. He added that adult binge drinkers usually have eight drinks per episode, which is far more than the four or five drinks that define binge drinking. Despite this, most binge drinkers are not dependent on alcohol.

According to Tsai, about 35 million adults reported binge drinking in 2008, and more than 40 percent reported binge drinking four or more times over a 30-day period. The new study found that frequent binge drinkers are significantly more likely to perceive their health as suboptimal.

Brewer said these results are important because people who report lower self-related health are more at risk for being hospitalized than those who report higher self-related health. In addition, the study adds to the scientific evidence that binge drinking is dangerous and can lead to hospitalization and death.

Tsai added that these results underscore the importance of screening for problematic drinking in healthcare settings.

Source: Science Daily, Binge Drinkers Report Sub-Optimal Health Status More Often Than Non-Binge Drinkers, June 7, 2010. 

The Russian government has declared an anti-alcohol campaign and aims to halve consumption by 2020 and root out illegal production and sales.

Under the bill, those found guilty of producing alcohol not registered with Russia’s Unified State Automated Information System (EGAIS), will face a fine of up to 200,000 rubles ($6,735) or a prison term of up to three years and a fine of up to 80,000 rubles ($2,700).

If the production was carried out by an organized group or in especially large quantities, it will entail a fine from 100,000 to 300,000 rubles ($3,370-$10,000). It can also be punished with a prison term from two to six years and a possible fine of up to a million rubles ($33,700).

Official statistics in Russia show more than 23,000 people die of alcohol poisoning annually. In an effort to fight counterfeit alcohol production, Russia introduced on January 1 a minimum price for vodka.

Alcohol consumption in Russia per capita is currently about 18 liters a year, twice the critical norm set by WHO.

Freeman, an assistant professor of pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine, said the challenge in determining alcohol abuse versus substance abuse (such as cocaine, heroin, or PCP) is that alcohol is a legal substance for those over 21.

"Unlike routine testing for illicit drugs, you can’t just look for a trace of alcohol because many people enjoy a drink in a responsible manner, and alcohol is very quickly metabolized. Discriminating between excessive and responsible levels of drinking makes this a greater challenge," said Freeman, the lead investigator.

Penn State Hershey researchers have been working for two-and-a-half years with Kathleen A. Grant at the Oregon National Primate Research Center on the project and have identified a set of 17 proteins in the blood that accurately predict alcohol usage 90 percent of the time in the primates.

Freeman said the team is interested in learning how the brain works, especially when it comes to alcohol abuse and drug addiction.

"What is it that changes in the brain with substance abuse, addiction, that makes it so hard for people to stay sober or stay clean to achieve that goal," he said. Freeman said tests that are currently available, such as breathalyzers, are used for acute intoxication at the time a person is given the test. Because alcohol quickly metabolizes, the current tests are not sensitive or specific enough to serve as diagnostics, he said.

"It (the tests) won’t tell us what people did yesterday or over the past two weeks or the past three months," he said, adding that researchers have been able to measure a set of 17 proteins in monkeys’ blood for alcohol use and separate usage into three categories: no alcohol use, drinking up to two drinks per day, and drinking at least six drinks per day.
"What we want to be able to do is take someone who is in treatment and make sure they have not relapsed," he said.

Most of the proteins they looked at relate to liver, immune and nervous system functions in the body, he said. "Alcohol is this little tiny molecule, and it binds to all sorts of stuff throughout the body. It’s not like a lot of other drugs. Long periods of heavy drinking are known to have adverse impacts on the liver, the heart, on the nervous system and on immune function," he said.

Freeman said the team found that the levels of some proteins increased or decreased with as little as one or two drinks a day. "These same changes occurred with heavier levels of drinking. We also found other proteins that responded only to heavy levels of drinking. Combined, these proteins allow us to classify subjects into non-drinking, alcohol-using and alcohol-abusing groups," he said.

Freeman said the next step in the research is to do blood tests on humans. "We’re working with a few different centers around the U.S. that have inpatient treatment facilities for alcoholism," he said. "We’ll collect blood throughout their stay to see if the patients’ protein pattern reverts from an excessive drinking pattern to a pattern that’s indicative of alcohol abstinence."

The researchers also are trying to determine whether the changes measured return to normal levels with cessation of drinking, and looking for additional proteins to both increase accuracy and provide alternates if some of the initial 17 do not work in humans.

He said the goal is to create a diagnostic test for alcohol consumption that may be used in areas of public safety, such as aviation or national security, for parole conditions or for helping physicians determine if a patient may have an alcohol-abuse problem.

The findings have been published in Biological Psychiatry, the journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry.

Others working on the project are Kent Vrana, chairman, Department of Pharmacology; Anna C. Salzberg, Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute; and Steven W. Gonzales, Biotic Micro Inc.

The research project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The AAP reports that backing the findings of earlier research, the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) paper found that the rate of violent offending by indigenous persons was consistently higher than non-indigenous persons, with indigenous males strongly over-represented.

Levels of recidivism were also disproportionately high while time taken to commit further offences was disproportionately low.

The study’s author, criminologist Joy Wundersitz, said it was widely recognized that here was no single cause of violence in indigenous communities. But there were a number of theories, including that initial European colonization and dispossession played a crucial role.

However, repeated studies, by among others indigenous leader Noel Pearson, have pointed to the role of alcohol. "Alcohol misuse is now widely regarded as one of, if not, the main risk factor for indigenous violence," she said.

Institute director Adam Tomison said available data indicated that indigenous people were 15 to 20 times more likely than non-indigenous people to commit violent offences. Risk factors included alcohol misuse, illicit drug use, sex, age, childhood experience of violence and abuse, exposure to pornography, education, income, employment, housing, physical and mental health, geographic location, and access to services.

"However, alcohol, based on existing evidence, stands out as a problem over and above structural factors, such as socio-economic disadvantage," Tomison said.

Wundersitz said the need to break the link between access to welfare money and alcohol abuse was a fundamental driver of the Northern Territory intervention, launched by the previous Howard government.

Most indigenous people were not violent even though many lived in communities where violence was endemic and were subjected to violence and systemic social disadvantage without becoming offenders themselves.

Despite the large number of studies, there were gaps in the data and that was limiting development of policies designed to curtail violence.

For example, there is little information to explain why many indigenous people do not commit offences and the only truly national data on indigenous offending is the institute’s homicide monitoring program.

"Without a more detailed understanding of what proportion of the indigenous population actually commits acts of violence, the nature and frequency of that violence, and the circumstances within which it occurs, successful intervention strategies will be difficult to develop," Wundersitz said.

"The challenge in alcohol abuse as opposed to substance abuse—things like cocaine or heroin or PCP—is that alcohol is a perfectly legal substance for those over 21," said Willard M. Freeman, Ph.D., department of pharmacology and lead investigator. "Unlike routine testing for illicit drugs, you can’t just look for a trace of alcohol because many people enjoy a drink in a responsible manner and alcohol is very quickly metabolized. Discriminating between excessive and responsible levels of drinking makes this a greater challenge."

Penn State Hershey researchers, working for two-and-a-half years in cooperation with Kathleen A. Grant, Ph.D., at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, identified a set of 17 proteins in the blood that accurately predicted alcohol usage 90 percent of the time in non-human primates. Researchers were able to separate usage into three categories—no alcohol use, drinking up to two drinks per day, and drinking at least six drinks per day. Protein levels rose and declined depending on alcohol consumption.

"We observed that the levels of some proteins increased or decreased with as little as one or two drinks a day," Freeman said. "These same changes occurred with heavier levels of drinking. We also found other proteins that responded only to heavy levels of drinking. Combined, these proteins allow us to classify subjects into non-drinking, alcohol-using, and alcohol-abusing groups."

The researchers are continuing their work, first by determining whether the changes measured return to normal levels with cessation of drinking. Second, they are looking for additional proteins to both increase accuracy and provide alternates if some of the initial 17 do not work in humans.

Working with groups around the world, Penn State Hershey researchers—led by Freeman and Kent Vrana, chair, department of pharmacology—plan to collect blood from people undergoing inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse.

"We’ll collect blood throughout their stay to see if the patients’ protein pattern reverts from an excessive drinking pattern to a pattern that’s indicative of alcohol abstinence," Freeman said.

The goal is to create a diagnostic test for alcohol consumption that may be used in areas of public safety like aviation or national security, for parole conditions and for helping physicians determine if a patient may have an alcohol abuse problem. Currently there are tests that try to address this issue, but Freeman said these tests are not sensitive and specific enough to serve as diagnostics.
"Many of these tests rely on just one protein," he said. "The limitation to this approach is that these tests often look at proteins produced by the liver. While these proteins increase with excessive alcohol intake, they also increase with any type of injury to the liver. For example, a lot of prescription drugs are hard on the liver. These tests let us know that the liver is being stressed but can’t discriminate between excessive drinking and other conditions, which therefore reduces the utility of these tests.

"That’s where we see the promise in this panel of proteins. The proteins are produced by a number of organs including the liver, the muscle, and the brain. This unique fingerprint that is indicative of alcohol abuse is less likely to be produced by unrelated conditions."
Freeman stresses, a diagnostic test would not be testing for alcoholism, but rather, alcohol intake.

"In a strictest use of the words, alcoholism is a psychological diagnosis as opposed to a level of drinking," he said. "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual really classifies alcohol abuse and alcoholism based on how alcohol is interfering with your life. Obviously we can’t use a blood test to say yes, your drinking is interfering with your home life. But the amount of drinking and the amount of problems it causes in your life are tightly correlated.

"We envision, a number of years down the line if this becomes a diagnostic test, that if the test indicates that you’re drinking a lot, it would prompt a referral to a specialist in alcohol abuse and alcoholism. This test could provide an objective indicator to help people begin addressing what may really be a problem in their lives."

Also contributing to this research are Anna C. Salzberg, Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute and Steven W. Gonzales, Biotic Micro, Inc. The researchers’ findings are published online in Biological Psychiatry. The National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism supported this work.

It is very difficult to determine whether self-report, especially when related to substances like alcohol or drugs, is tainted with a participant wanting to preserve his or her image to the researcher doing the questioning. It also may be heavily tainted by memory problems, with behaviors escalating or declining depending on how the behavior is viewed by the participant at a later date.

A recent study looked at the impact of memory on reporting alcohol intake. Chu, Meoni, Wang, Liang, Ford and Klag examined the reliability of alcohol recall. They examined alcohol recall after 15 years and then again after 23 years to see if memory was reliable for measuring alcohol intake.

The researchers recruited participants from a group of medical students in classes 1948 to 1964. The participants were questioned about alcohol intake at an average age of 70 years old.

The results of the study show that the average reported alcohol intake at 15 years and 23 years prior were 6.3 and 7.4 drinks per week, respectively. The recall of alcohol consumption showed an overestimation by a mean of 0.47 drinks per week at 15 years. At 23 years, there was an underestimation by a mean of 0.79 drinks per week.

The differences between the recalled and the actual alcohol consumed were mostly due to differences between concurrently reported and recalled distilled spirits consumption.

There were several characteristics associated with underestimation of alcohol recall. They were an age of 71 or older in 2001, self-report of memory difficulties, and self-report of difficulties in physical functioning.

The study employed multivariate regression analyses to combine the 15- and 23-year recall, showing that subjects who reported consumption of more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week overestimated by only slightly more than one drink per week.

The results of the study provide important information for scientists researching alcohol consumption. The reliability of self-report, even after many years, is very good. The impact of general memory problems on self-report seems to be negligible when considering that those who consumed 14 drinks or more per week were less than a drink off when reporting on the behavior many years later.
 

The release of the wine, called Winezero, follows Italian Agricultural Minister Luca Zaia’s praise of non-alcoholic wine in curbing alcohol abuse.

Winezero is being made in made in Valladolid, Spain, from grapes from the Duero, Rueda, and Cigales and the range includes a red, white, rosé, and an American oak-aged red.

The wine was created by Italian entrepreneurs Massimiliano Bertolini and Manuel Zanella, who are targeting young people and those who don’t want to, or can’t, drink alcohol.

“We’re not in competition with traditional wine. It’s a new drink, equal to decaffeinated coffee or non-alcoholic beer,” Bertolini said.

“De-alcoholized wine is already trendy in Spain, France, and Germany. There was a gap in the Italian market and it was the right time to fill it,’” Bertolini said.