What's the difference?
- Drinking too much too often can be settled by drinking less, less often.
- Acoholism can be settled by abstinence from alcohol. Failure to abstain- for an alcoholic, brings on a relapse of the disease.
Health Help's article on alcoholism is a glimpse at some of the biology of the disease - as revealed in the workings of genes involved in transmission, the chemistry of alcohol in metabolism, and the mechanisms by which drugs that treat and are used to prevent alcoholism exert their effects.
The external links at the bottom of the page provide links to rehab centers and to complete clinical information that may be of help to alcoholics and their families.
Disulfiram is the drug known as Antabuse. Approved by the FDA since 1951, this medication results in a severely unpleasant reaction if alcohol is ingested.
Current treatment recommendations are that disulfiram dosage be in the least amount that would cause minor but uncomfortable physiological disulfiram-ethanol reactions. The FDA-recommended average daily maintenance dose today is 250 mg, with a range of 125 to 500 mg (maximum daily dose).
- Higuchi S. Matsushita S. Kashima H. New findings on the genetic influences on alcohol use and dependence. Current Opinion in Psychiatry. 19(3):253-65, 2006 May.
- Zemore SE. Helping as healing among recovering alcoholics. Southern Medical Journal. 100(4):447-50, 2007
- Suh JJ. Pettinati HM. Kampman KM. O'Brien CP. The status of disulfiram: a half of a century later. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 26(3):290-302, 2006
Drugs, Alcohol, and Your Kid by Judith Seixas and Geraldine Youcha