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PubMed1996

Help-seeking for alcohol-related problems: social contexts surrounding entry into alcoholism treatment or Alcoholics Anonymous.

OBJECTIVE: The role of problem drinkers' social contexts in help-seeking patterns was investigated using recent entrants into outpatient alcoholism treatment or Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Untreated, active problem drinkers served as controls. METHOD: Subjects (N = 45, with 15 per group: 62% male) were recruited from the community. Habitual drinking practices, social network characteristics, social support, help-seeking barriers and incentives, and event occurrences during the 2 years prior to help-seeking were assessed during structured interviews. Collaterals verified subject reports. RESULTS: Alcohol-related psychosocial problems and social network characteristics specific to drinking and help-seeking differentiated the groups, whereas drinking practices, general measures of social support and event occurrences did not. Both groups who sought help reported less network encouragement to drink, more network encouragement to seek help and greater alcohol-related psychosocial problems compared to untreated problem drinkers. AA participants also received more conflicting messages about seeking help than did treatment participants, and features of AA variously attracted and repelled different problem drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate the importance of separating alcohol-specific social influences on help-seeking from more general social contextual variables and provide a social basis for distinguishing the appeal of AA from that of formal treatment. The results generally concur with studies of help-seeking for other medical and psychological disorders and support a common approach that emphasizes the social nature of help-seeking and focuses on functional rather than structural influences.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

[Alcoholic fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis. Drinking behavior and incidence of clinical, clinico-chemical and histological findings in 282 patients].

Drinking pattern as well as clinical, biochemical and histological findings were recorded of 282 males with alcohol-induced liver disease (fatty liver in 103, hepatitis in 61, cirrhosis in 118). The proportion of persons under 50 years of age was significantly greater with alcoholic hepatitis (70%) than cirrhosis (46%). Mean daily alcohol consumption was clearly lower among those with fatty liver than hepatitis or cirrhosis (P less than 0.02). Duration of alcohol abuse was on average shorter in patients with fatty liver and hepatitis than with cirrhosis (excessive consumption of less than 15 years was 61% and 62%, respectively, in the former, 28% in the latter (P less than 0.02). Symptoms and clinical and biochemical findings did not help in differentiating between hepatitis without cirrhotic change and cirrhosis. The most marked differences between cirrhosis and hepatitis, on one hand, and fatty liver, on the other, related to the frequency of certain signs and symptoms: upper abdominal pain, hard consistency of the liver, generalized jaundice, bleeding from esophageal varices and ascites; among biochemical findings they were: elevation of serum-bilirubin concentration above 34 mumol/l (2 mg/dl), lowering of the Quick values and of albumin concentration. Mortality rate during hospital stay was lower among patients with hepatitis but no cirrhotic change (6.6%) than among those with cirrhotic change (31.4%). While the prognosis under abstinence was relatively more favourable in patients with mild or moderately severe hepatitis, nonicteric forms require closer attention than has been given them so far.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

The relationships among alcohol availability, alcohol consumption and alcohol-related damage in the Province of Ontario and the State of Michigan 1955-1982.

This study examines the relationships among the relative price of alcohol, per capita alcohol consumption and liver cirrhosis mortality rates over a 28 year period in Ontario and Michigan. A high, positive association between per capita consumption and liver cirrhosis mortality was observed for both jurisdictions. In both areas, changes in the relative price of alcohol were inversely related to changes in consumption and cirrhosis mortality. Although causal inferences from these data must be made with caution, the results are strong enough to suggest that policy initiatives concerning the economic availability of alcohol should consider public health consequences.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed2006

Identification of QTLs influencing alcohol preference in the High Alcohol Preferring (HAP) and Low Alcohol Preferring (LAP) mouse lines.

The High- and Low-Alcohol Preferring (HAP1/LAP1 and HAP2/LAP2) mouse lines were developed by selective breeding for differences in alcohol preference. They represent the only extant selectively bred mouse lines developed for this alcohol phenotype. Therefore, they provide a unique resource for QTL detection and mapping. Importantly, neither of the replicate lines is inbred and therefore, novel study designs can be employed to detect loci contributing to alcohol preference. Two independent studies, with very different approaches, were conducted in the HAP and LAP replicate lines. In Study 1, microsatellite markers were genotyped in the replicate HAP1/LAP1 and HAP2/LAP2 mice in QTL regions nominated by other mouse RI and F2 studies in order to detect divergence of allele frequencies in the two oppositely selected lines. Significant differences in allele frequencies were observed in the HAP1/LAP1 mice with markers on chromosome 9 (p<0.01). In the HAP2/LAP2 mice, significant differences in allele frequencies were identified on chromosomes 2 and 9 (p<0.01). In Study 2, a genome-wide screen was performed in a sample of 432 HAP1xLAP1 F2 animals and a QTL on chromosome 9 (LOD=5.04) was found which met criteria for genome wide significance (p<0.001). Gender specific analyses supported a greater effect of the QTL among female mice (LOD=5.19; p<0.0008) than male mice (LOD=1.19). This study provides additional evidence and confirmation that specific regions on chromosomes 9 and perhaps 2 are important for alcohol preference.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1994

Hepatic aldehyde and alcohol dehydrogenases in alcohol-preferring and alcohol-avoiding rat lines.

The alcohol-avoiding ANA (Alko, Non-Alcohol) and alcohol-preferring AA (Alko, Alcohol) rat lines are known to differ in their acetaldehyde metabolism and were originally found to differ in hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activities in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1980s, these rat lines were revitalized and some previously found line differences were lost. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether these enzymatic line differences still exist and, if so, to study them further at the isoenzyme level. ADH and ALDH activities were measured from liver homogenates and different subcellular fractions of the rats. The ANA rats were found to have lower hepatic ALDH and higher ADH activities than AA rats, in accordance with the previous study. The line difference in ALDH activity was observed in all fractions, but was more apparent with millimolar than micromolar substrate concentrations and generally more pronounced in females than in males. The line difference in the microsomal ALDH activity was found to be quantitative, and it seemed to concern both microsomal ALDH isoenzymes. A qualitative line difference concerning mitochondrial high Km ALDH isoenzyme was found, and three different cytosolic ALDH isoenzyme patterns were observed, the frequencies of which were found to be different in the two lines. In conclusion, the results of the present study support the assumption that line differences in hepatic ADH and ALDH activities may be relevant to the acetaldehyde accumulation and the particularly low ethanol consumption of the ANA rats.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed1975

[Fatty-acid pattern of human fat and liver tissues in alcoholics and non-alcoholics: fatty-acid pattern as a measure of alcoholism (author's transl)].

Samples from the right lobe of the liver and from fat tissue of the abdominal wall were removed shortly after death from 116 persons. Fatty-acid pattern of both tissues (lauric, myristic, palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, linoleic acids) was measured and compared with the degree of fatty infiltration of the liver. The data were also correlated with chronic excess alcohol consumption in the pre-terminal phase. It was found that with increasing fatty inflitration there was a rise in the relative proportion of palmitoleic acid in liver and subcutaneous fat tissues, with a fall in the relative proportion of stearic acid in the latter. Comparison of results in alcoholics (19 subjects) and non-alcoholics (91) showed the expected higher fatty infiltration of the liver in the former (x equal 13.4% and 5.6%, respectively). Both in liver and subcutaneous fat tissues the relative proportion of palmitoleic acid was significantly higher in alcoholics. But while in these the proportion of palmitoleic acid in the liver was higher than in subcutaneous tissue, the relationship was the converse among the non-alcoholics.

Abdominal Muscles↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The SECCAT Survey: II. The Alcohol Related Problems Questionnaire as a proxy for resource costs and quality of life in alcoholism treatment. Study of Socio-Economic Consequences and Costs of Alcoholism and Treatment.

An interview was obtained with 212 patients who had, at a point 12 months previously, been in contact with an alcohol problems clinic. Quality of life (SF-36) was measured and for the preceding 6 months the cost of health and social service resource use was estimated, together with the total abstinent (or controlled drinking) days accrued. Alcohol related health, personal and social problems experienced during that period were elicited using a brief 11-item questionnaire, the Alcohol Related Problems Questionnaire (ARPQ). The estimate of costs correlated more strongly with the ARPQ score (r = -0.32, P = 0.0001) than with abstinent days (r = 0.03, n.s.) or controlled drinking months (r = -0.21, P = 0.002). The lack of relation of total abstinent days to cost is partly because abstainers tended to use considerable alcohol problems clinic resources. ARPQ scores indicating more problems were associated with lower quality of life. The ARPQ can serve as a proxy for resource use and quality of life in alcoholism treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Alcohol consumption and brain adenylate cyclase system in rats: brain adenylate cyclase activity in alcohol-preferring AA and alcohol-avoiding ANA rats].

Brain adenylate cyclase (AC) activity in the alcohol-preferring AA (Alko Alcohol) and alcohol-avoiding ANA (Alko, Non-Alcohol) rats was examined. Both basal and Gpp(NH) p-stimulated AC activities were higher in the cerebral cortex of the ANA rats than in the AA rats. Isoproterenol-stimulated AC activity tended to increase in the cerebral cortex of the ANA rats compared to the AA rats. Basal AC activity in the striatum of the AA rats was higher than that in the ANA rats, however, striatal Gpp(NH)p-stimulated AC activity was not different between the two rats lines. In the mesolimbic and cerebellum, there was no difference in AC activity between the rat lines. These results suggest that the noradrenergic function in the cerebral cortex has an important role in the regulation of alcohol intake.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗
PubMed1995

No association between the c2 allele at the cytochrome P450IIE1 gene and alcohol induced liver disease, alcohol Korsakoff's syndrome or alcohol dependence syndrome.

Cytochrome P450IIE1 metabolises, and is induced by ethanol. The 5' regulatory sequence of the gene is polymorphic; that identified by the c2 allele has been shown by transfection studies to confer an increased rate of transcription. A recent report indicating an association between this allele and alcohol induced cirrhosis suggests that it may contribute to the genetic vulnerability to this disease. We have examined this polymorphism in patients of western European origin with alcohol induced cirrhosis, alcohol Korsakoff's syndrome and alcohol dependence syndrome. We were unable to detect any association between this allele and any of these diseases.

Alcohol Amnestic Disorder↗
PubMed1998

Alcoholic beverage preference and risks of alcohol-related medical consequences: a preliminary report from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey.

In studying the alcohol-morbidity association, a substantial amount of attention and efforts has been focused on volume of alcohol intake. Considerably less is known about the differential health effects of beverage types. The present study used a most recent national household survey of the U.S. general population on drinking practices, alcohol use disorders, and their associated disabilities. The prevalence of a broad range of alcohol-related diseases was examined with respect to preferred beverage type, as well as consumption level. Our findings showed a reduced health risk associated with beer and wine drinking for a number of physical disorders, and a somewhat favorable cardiovascular effect of these two beverage types in relation to abstention. Among preferrers of beer, wine, and liquor, the results indicate that liquor preference is associated with elevated morbidity for several medical consequences. However, interpretation of results and the public health implications of these findings need to be taken cautiously, because sociodemographic and other behavioral characteristics were not considered in this preliminary report.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Coniferyl alcohol metabolism in conifers -- II. Coniferyl alcohol and dihydroconiferyl alcohol biosynthesis.

Coniferaldehyde and NADPH when incubated with microsomes isolated from developing xylem of Pinus strobus yielded coniferyl alcohol and dihydroconiferyl alcohol in vitro. D-(+)-Pinitol was also found to be a microsomal constituent. Endogenous E-coniferyl alcohol content, quantified in dormant buds, cambium, bark and needles of Pinus resinosa and P. strobus by isotope-dilution combined gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) using ring-(13)C(6)-coniferyl alcohol, was at a level similar to that of endogenous indol 3-ylacetic acid (IAA). Wounding (branch girdling) induced more than a 10-fold increase in content of endogenous E-coniferyl alcohol in dormant non-lignifying cambium, a clear indication that monolignol biosynthesis is not coupled to lignification.

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry↗
PubMed1977

Female alcoholics. I. Ways of admission of the alcoholic patient. A study special reference to the alcoholic female.

The aim of this study has been to describe the different ways in which 100 alcoholics of each sex sought treatment, with special reference to the females. In addition, some psychiatric and social characteristics of the two groups of patients are presented. A significantly higher number of the females were admitted as a result of an acute complication: unconsciousness, suicide attempt, confusion, neurological disorders, etc., while the males generally sought treatment under less dramatic circumstances. As the patients selected were early cases, most had not been treated before, but in those with previous in-patient psychiatric treatment a diagnosis without an alcohol connection was significantly more common among the women. Drug abuse was considerably more frequent among the female as compared with the male alcoholics, and the specific lonely drinking pattern was also more common among the women. A striking difference between the sexes appeared with respect to partner: more than one-half of the married women had alcoholic husbands. The corresponding figure for the married men amounted to about 10%.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

[Alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver hepatitis. When is abstaining from alcohol enough, when do steroids help?].

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are often histopathologically indistinguishable. Apart from the clinical and laboratory findings, the patient's history is of key importance for differentiating between alcoholic steatohepatitis with its poor prognosis, and NASH, with its usually bland course. While the latter rarely requires specific treatment, the former, in particular in its severe form, is a therapeutic challenge. In addition to suitable dietary measures, patients with a Maddrey Score > 32, may need corticosteroids. In patients with mild to moderate steatohepatitis, the daily alcohol consumption appears to be decisive for the prognosis. In severe forms of this condition, in contrast, mortality is high, and patients surviving the acute phase often develop cirrhosis, irrespective of their further drinking habits.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1992

[Biological alcohol markers. Genetic markers for familial alcoholism and markers for the detection of harmful alcohol consumption].

Existing biological markers of alcoholism and excessive alcohol consumption are of poor sensitivity and specificity, and new, improved markers are needed. Owing to the genetic contribution to the development of alcoholism, as demonstrated in family and adoption studies, a search has been initiated for 'preventive' or genetic markers. In addition, other new biochemical markers have been introduced, and results so far obtained with CDT (carbohydrate deficient transferrin) in the detection of alcoholics have been promising. However, the clinical and scientific implications of these new markers need to be elucidated in greater detail.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗
PubMed1994

Genotyping of alcohol dehydrogenase at the ADH2 and ADH3 loci by using a polymerase chain reaction and restriction-fragment-length polymorphism in Chinese alcoholic cirrhotics and non-alcoholics.

We investigated the genotype of ADH2 and ADH3 in Chinese alcoholic cirrhotics and non-alcoholics by using a polymerase chain reaction and restriction-fragment-length polymorphism. This method is non-radioactive, easy to implement with good reproducibility. In the Chinese population, the frequencies of the ADH2*1 and ADH3*2 alleles were significantly higher in the alcoholic cirrhotic patients (53%; 23%) than in the viral hepatitis cirrhotics (32%; 8%) and the gastric and/or duodenal ulcer control patients (25%; 6%). On the other hand, the gastric and/or duodenal ulcer control patients and the viral hepatitis cirrhotic patients showed similar allele frequencies for the polymorphic ADH2 and ADH3 genes. These findings suggest that the alleles ADH2*2 and ADH3*1, coding for the high-Vmax beta 2-ADH and gamma 1-ADH, respectively, may play a protective role against alcoholism in Chinese patients.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed1992

The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test: reliability and relationship to family environment, adjustment, and alcohol-related stressors of adolescent offspring of alcoholics.

The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) had acceptably high internal consistency (.88 and .90) and test-retest reliabilities (.88) when administered to adolescents from intact alcoholic families. CAST scores were unrelated to measures of adolescent adjustment or indices that reflect general family environment. However, CAST scores did correlate positively with a measure of the more specific family environment related to alcohol abuse. The study suggested that CAST scores are best suited for screening respondents and not as a dependent variable because the relationships that one is likely to identify between CAST scores and any other variable would be primarily reflective of group differences between offspring of alcoholics and nonalcoholics.

Adaptation, Psychological↗