Rehab Articles
alcohol abuse, military veterans
New research shows that military veterans may engage in alcohol abuse due to the stressors of civilian life, and that this is a higher risk for military veterans than for civilians. National Guard soldiers who returned home after leaving the service were far more likely to engage in alcohol abuse if they experienced setbacks in their civilian life. Some of the biggest stresses included serious legal issues, divorce, the loss of a job, or serious financial problems like bankruptcy or home foreclosure. The results of this study can be found online in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Military veterans who return home are at a higher risk of alcohol abuse when life gets tough and civilian stress is high, and in depth help is needed to help these vets acclimate to the stress of civilian life.
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Magdalena Cerdá, PH.D., MPH, who was the lead study investigator, discussed the findings regarding military veterans and alcohol abuse. “Exposure to the traumatic event itself has an important effect on mental health in the short-term, but what defines long-term mental health problems is having to deal with a lot of daily life difficulties that arise in the aftermath — when soldiers come home. The more traumatic events soldiers are exposed to during and after combat, the more problems they are likely to have in their daily life — in their relationships, in their jobs — when they come home. These problems can in turn aggravate mental health issues, such as problems with alcohol that arise during and after deployment.”
Rehab Articles
alcohol use, alcohol abuse, sleep disturbances
Study results have shown that alcohol abuse can cause sleep disturbances even after all alcohol use is stopped. A number of studies have shown that the sleep patterns of current and past alcoholics are not the same as sleep patterns which occur in those who have never abused alcohol. One of the relevant studies was published in the Oct 1 2009 Sleep journal, and the study involved 84 people. It has long been seen that alcohol use can impact sleep, but 42 study participants were previous alcoholics in recovery and 42 study participants had never had any issues with alcohol abuse. Everyone who participated in the study had an overnight stay in the sleep lab and they were attached to monitors to study their brain and sleep patterns.
Alcohol use and alcohol abuse cause sleep disturbances, but what was a little surprising was the sleep patterns that were seen in individuals who were previously alcoholics but who had been in recovery for at least 30 days, and some of the study participants had been in recovery for much longer than this. Even after being clean and sober for at least 30 days, and in some cases many months, those who had alcohol abuse issues in the past still had sleep disturbances. Alcohol use causes reduced REM sleep and it may be possible that the sleep disturbances seen in previous alcoholics is the attempt by the body to recover from insufficient REM sleep.
Rehab Articles
alcohol abuse, drug abuse, counseling
Alcohol abuse may be helped by a brief period of counseling but this is not the case with drug abuse according to a new study by Boston University. For more than 10 years the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency of the United States federal government, has recommended substance abuse screenings and brief periods of counseling for alcohol and drug abuse. According to the Boston University study the results of these recommendations are somewhat surprising. The approach used was often effective for individuals who engaged in alcohol abuse, but the effectiveness dropped sharply when drug abuse was studied.
According to Dr. Richard Saitz, the leader of the study and the Boston University School of Public Health community health sciences chairman, “Brief counseling can work for a lot of things, but we found no evidence to support the widespread implementation of universal screening and brief intervention for illicit drug use or prescription drug misuse. In retrospect, drug use is a complicated problem. While there might have been some hope that something as simple as this would work, it now appears it doesn’t. People who are using drugs and admit to using drugs are already doing something not socially sanctioned, so getting them to change their behavior may be harder.” Saitz went on to state “Despite many reasons to not use, they are continuing to do so. A few minutes of counseling is not going to change that. Because each drug is different a universal intervention is especially difficult. What works to address marijuana use may not work to stop heroin injecting, for example. One-time brief counseling is simply inadequate to address these complexities, even as an initial strategy. Even with alcohol use multiple interventions have been more successful than one-time sessions.”
Rehab Articles
substance abuse, drug addiction, alcohol abuse
1. Worry- Substance abuse can have a profound effect on your family members and friends. These individuals may worry constantly because of your drug addiction or alcohol abuse, concerned that your drug addiction will harm you or someone else. When you are away from loved ones they may worry that you can not control your substance abuse.
2. Helpless- Family members often feel helpless over your substance abuse, and they may feel like there is nothing that they can do. This is true to a point, but feeling helpless can be eliminated by arranging for an intervention and then a stay in a drug addiction or alcohol abuse treatment center.
3. Frustration- Frustration is common among family members who are dealing with substance abuse by a loved one. The family member may feel frustrated because they try to help but the user continues their destructive habits. As a family member you may feel like giving up but you can get through if you are persistent.
4. Fear- In many cases of drug addiction and alcohol abuse the loved ones feel fear because of the risks and medical consequences of substance abuse. Your family may be concerned that you will overdose and die, or that constant drinking may destroy your liver and health.
5. Anger- Anger is another emotion that substance abuse by a family member can cause. It is often a first reaction to be mad at the user or view this problem as one of not enough willpower, but this is not the case.
Rehab Articles
binge drinking, alcohol abuse
A new research study shows that even one binge drinking episode can harm your health significantly. The study was performed by the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the results of this type of alcohol abuse were surprising. According to lead study author Gyongyi Szabo, M.D., Ph.D “We found that a single alcohol binge can elicit an immune response, potentially impacting the health of an otherwise healthy individual. Our observations suggest that an alcohol binge is more dangerous than previously thought.”Scientists involved in the study found that a single session of binge drinking can cause bacteria to leak from the gut of an individual into their bloodstream, and this can raise the amount of toxins that are present in the blood. The toxins from the bacteria, referred to as endotoxins, can cause an immune response which leads to the production of immune cells which may be involved in causing tissue destruction in the body, inflammation, and fever.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism or NIAAA defines binge drinking as drinking that causes your blood alcohol concentration to reach at least 0.08g/dL. For an adult female this is typically at least 4 drinks in a two hour period, and for an adult male this is typically at least 5 drinks in a two hour period. There are other factors involved as well, such as the weight of the person and their previous drinking experiences. Until now the dangers of binge drinking did not include facts on a single binge drinking episode and were based on longer patters of alcohol abuse and binge drinking. This study shows that even binge drinking once can have negative consequences on your health.
