Heavy Drinkers Not Always Alcoholics

Nov. 30, 2014 – A recent study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contradicts the widely held belief that heavy drinkers are alcoholics. Only 10 percent of adults met the criteria defining alcoholism. The study analyzed self-reported data from 138,100 adults.

The standard measure identifying heavy drinkers is eight drinks or more for women and 15 or more for men per week.

Alcoholism is defined by the inability to stop or reduce drinking, even when it has a deleterious effect on family or work, as well as spending an excessive amount of time drinking each day.

The federal study also concluded that only a third of binge drinkers were alcoholics. Binge drinking would be four drinks for women and five for men in one session more than 10 times in a month. It also showed that alcoholism was more likely to occur when the family income was $25,000 or less.

Two things to take away from the study are that the amount of drinking was self-reported and that according to the CDC, 88,000 people are killed by alcohol each year. They are referring to health problems linked to alcohol consumption such as breast cancer, liver and heart disease and auto accidents. It strikes us that attributing both breast cancer and auto accidents to alcohol related deaths is arguable. Auto accidents absolutely can be tied to alcohol impairment but there can be many causes for breast cancer.

Robert Brewer, one of the authors of the study said, “Anybody who takes from this paper that excessive drinking is not dangerous unless you are dependent is simply not getting the message, which is that drinking too much is bad, period.”