- published: 13 Aug 2014
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Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse is sometimes referred to by the less specific term alcoholism. However, many definitions of alcoholism exist, and only some are compatible with alcohol abuse. There are two types of alcoholics: those who have anti social and pleasure-seeking tendencies, and those who are anxiety-ridden- people who are able to go without drinking for long periods of time but are unable to control themselves once they start.Binge drinking is another form of alcohol abuse. Frequent binge drinking or getting severely drunk more than twice is classed as alcohol misuse.
Alcohol abuse is a pattern of drinking that results in harm to one’s health, interpersonal relationships, or ability to work. According to Gelder, Mayou & Geddes (2005) alcohol abuse is linked with suicide. They state the risk of suicide is high in older men who have a history of drinking, also if a person is suffering from depression. Certain manifestations of alcohol abuse include failure to fulfill responsibilities at work, school or home; drinking in dangerous situations, such as while driving; legal problems associated with alcohol use; and continued drinking despite problems that are caused or worsened by drinking. Alcohol abuse can lead to alcohol dependence. Proposed changes to the DSM-IV to the DSM-V are expected to combine alcohol abuse with alcohol dependence to create one unified disorder, alcohol use disorder (AUD), that would include graded clinical severity from moderate to severe with at least 2 criteria to make diagnoses. For adolescents, the DSM-V proposes that diagnoses meeting 2 or 3 criteria would be similar to alcohol abuse while meeting over 4 criteria would be equivalent to alcohol dependence when compared to the DSM-IV.