Alcoholism or alcohol dependence is a disorder and is normally accompanied with symptoms like craving alcohol, inability to stop drinking once started, sweating, nausea, anxiety and drinking large amounts of alcohol with the goal of getting ‘high’. Majority of drinkers drink because they believe that it will ease the issues in their lives. On the contrary, it will not. Instead, they acquire alcoholism which would lead to serious complications as well as fatal illnesses (Legg, 2016). In young adult Mexican Americans and American Indians, a history of regular binge drinking had a connection to longer sleep problems, issues with breathing, nightmares and an overall higher poor sleep quality score.
Alcohol use disorders are currently prevailing in people over 65 years in Europe. For lifetime alcohol use, the prevalence was 81%. The consumption of alcohol and the disorders related to the use of it were highly prevalent in males. It was also found that there was an interaction between the city and the gender. In Hamburg, London/Canterbury and Geneva, there was a greater level of gender difference in the prevalence of the alcohol use disorders when compared to other cities. The occurrence of lifetime alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders seemed to be lower in older people (Ehlers, et al.
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, 2018).Evidence has been found that the consumption of alcohol and alcohol withdrawal have the tendency to increase the brain levels of signalling molecules of the immune system, resulting in neuroinflammation which is the inflammation of nervous tissue. This can be caused by various factors; toxic metabolites (found in alcohol) being one of them (Hillemacher, et al., 2018).Although alcohol consumption has declined for over 10 years in Japan, it is still at a high level. Alcohol consumption has increased rapidly in women than men. According to longitudinal data done on this topic, alcohol related problems have increased at a steady rate over the past decades.
Apart from this, there has also been an increase in road traffic accidents related to alcohol consumption. Although there are policies and alcohol prevention programmes, they have been developed to a level where they can control these issues in a proper way (Higuchi, et al., 2007). According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2015, 88,000 people die alcohol-related deaths every year.
This estimate puts alcohol in the third place on the list of leading preventable causes of death in the United States. In 2014, there were 9,967 deaths due to alcohol-related road traffic accidents (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2017). When consumed moderately, alcohol is said to have effects on health that are beneficial such as decreased risk and mortality caused by heart disease as well as decreased risk for diabetes mellitus and ischemic stroke. Epidemiological studies show that in majority of Western countries, alcohol reduces the mortality rates mostly among men and women who are middle-aged or older. According to these studies, in 2005 an estimated 26,000 deaths were avoided because of the decrease in heart disease, diabetes and stroke due to alcohol consumption of a moderate nature (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2017). According to a study done in Hong Kong and Korea, increased underage drinking behaviour is linked to certain behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics (Wang & Chen, 2018).
