Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Alcohol Dependence

The use of alcohol for purposes of relaxation or socializing by mankind has been reported throughout history in most civilizations. The social approval to alcohol use has varied from strong disapproval to being actively encouraged. In the 20th Century Western World, the use of alcohol as well as the related disorders, has been increasing rapidly. The recognition of alcoholism as a disease occurred during the early 1950s by the World health Organization (WHO) Jellinek's description of "disease concept of alcoholism" and the subtypes of alcoholism generated a lot of interest. It proved to be stimulus for systematic descriptions of alcohol related problems. The first description of "Alcohol Dependence Syndrome" in 1976 by Edwards and Gross emphasized inability to control consumption, salience of drink seeking behaviour, and narrowing of drinking repertoire as the characteristics besides the phenomena of tolerance and withdrawal. The concept of alcoholism can be well understood by the entymological origin of the term. Like all other "isms", alcohol becomes a way of life in persons with alcoholism. As in All other" isms", in this one too, alcohol becomes the "raison d' et re" or the reason for existence. In India, although alcohol use in ancient times and cannabis and affim (raw opium) in more recent times have been known and reported for some time, substance use problems have been recognized to have a significant importance as a public health problems and in various other facets of life only very recently.