Sex and Gender Effects in Recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder
Search
Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for Girls and Women
Stress, Epigenetics, and Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a complex disorder characterized by compulsive alcohol seeking and consumption that also is impacted by related psychiatric states, such as anxiety (Koob 2003; Pandey 2003). Both environmental and genetic factors influence alcohol drinking patterns and may increase susceptibility to the development of alcohol addiction (Cloninger 1987; Crabbe 2002). The presence or development of...
Immune Function Genes, Genetics, and the Neurobiology of Addiction
The nervous system and the immune system interact closely to regulate the body’s immune responses, including inflammatory responses. Accordingly, the term “neuroimmune system” refers to the immune system and those components of the nervous system that help regulate immune responses and also encompasses the hormones and other signaling molecules that convey signals between the immune and nervous...
Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain: What We’ve Learned and Where the Data Are Taking Us
Introduction
The past 50 years of research supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) have resulted in an accumulation of invaluable data to address the multifaceted problems surrounding underage drinking. Youth use of alcohol remains a pervasive social and public health concern in the United States and a leading cause of disability and mortality during...
Naturalistic Research on Recovery Processes: Looking to the Future
Introduction
Recovery is an ongoing process. It is ongoing both because the risk for relapse is lifelong and because renewed recovery is always possible no matter how long the relapse. The ongoing nature of recovery presents multiple research challenges. Because the process of recovery can play out over decades, longitudinal research—although often difficult to conduct—is essential. But even...
The Endocrine System and Alcohol Drinking in Females
Stress and the HPA Axis: Role of Glucocorticoids in Alcohol Dependence
Stress, generally defined as any stimulus that disrupts the body’s internal balance (i.e., physiological homeostasis), has long been suggested to be an important correlate of uncontrolled alcohol consumption or relapse to drinking following a period of abstinence. Large epidemiological studies have reported that a variety of stressors are associated with increased alcohol consumption and binge...
Alcohol Use Disorder: The Role of Medication in Recovery
Introduction
It is estimated that nearly 14.6 million Americans currently meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD)1 included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5),2 and approximately 88,000 die from alcohol-related causes in the United States each year.3 An older term, “alcohol dependence,” is equivalent to the DSM-5 criteria for AUD...