Univerzitet „Bijeljina“

Bijeljina University

Seminarski rad
Predmet: Engleski jezik

DISEASES ADDICTION OF ALCOHOLISM

Мentor: Student:
Branislava Đukanović Jovana Stanković 150/22

Bijeljina, decembar 2022.

 Content
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 3
1. Epidemiology of alcohol dependence ................................................................................. 4
2. Definition of alcohol dependence ...................................................................................... 6
3.Etiology of alcoholism ........................................................................................................ 7
4. Psychic consequences of alcoholism .................................................................................. 8
5. Multidisciplinary and intersectoral work in the treatment of alcohol addiction ............. 9
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 10
LITERATURE ..................................................................................................................... 11
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INTRODUCTION
Six thousand years ago, alcohol was mentioned as care, as medicine, as protection. Today, it is
still one of the most widespread drug addictions, 3-5% of the total world population abuses
alcohol or is dependent on alcohol, which increases the number of people around them by the
magic carousel of alcoholism. In an attempt to solve this global problem, society is protecting
itself from alcoholics by resorting to their punishment. Many laws have provided for severe
punishments for the offense of committing an intoxicated state. The roots of the second medical
direction, which perceives alcoholism as a health problem, are found in medieval prescriptions
for the treatment of the consequences of alcoholism. The English doctor Thomas Trotter
published the first medical study on alcoholism in 1878. Organized forms of fighting against the
excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages soon appeared, and alcoholics were admitted to
hospitals for treatment. The main reasons for the difficulty in treating this disease are that
alcoholism is considered a social-medical disease with a high degree of tolerance from the
environment in which the alcoholic lives, which is due to two basic reasons: Alcohol is used in
everyday life and it has become a means of maintaining sociality. It is used in religious
ceremonies, as a medicine, as a means of cheering up, in moments of sadness, celebration, work-
related songs, failures. The status of an alcoholic represents the nature of the disease itself,
which is insidious and lasts for a long time.

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1. Epidemiology of alcohol dependence

Misuse of the world's most common land leading to death, disease and injury is something we
must prevent.

Alcohol consumption is associated with negative consequences for health and social life. The
negative effects of alcohol have been shown against numerous diseases including cirrhosis of
the liver, mental diseases, several types of non-carcinogenic diseases, pancreatitis and fetal
damage in the case of pregnant women.

Alcohol use is also strongly linked to social problems such as injuries and deaths caused by
drunk driving, aggressive behavior, disruptions to family life and reduced productivity at work.

The number of negative consequences associated with the use of alcohol is the main reason for
the international monitoring (World Health Organization) of the use and effects of alcohol.

Murray and Lopez (1996) estimated that alcohol consumption at the global level during 1990
contributed to 773,600 deaths, 19.3 million years of life lost and an additional 47.7 million years
of life with disability.

Approximately 82% of this burden of death, disease and injury in the regions of the world
classified as "developing countries".

Estimates of the annual economic costs of alcohol in developed countries range from 0.5% to
2.7% of gross domestic product and necessarily exceed the costs of illicit drug use to a large
extent.

Today, there is no single opinion on the incidence of alcoholism. It is assumed that 3-10% of
the total population are alcoholics, 20-30% of people at some age of their lives have serious
health and social problems due to alcoholic beverages, and 10-15% of adult men are alcoholics.

The registry of treated alcoholics shows an increase in female alcoholics from 15:1 to 3:1 and
the tendency of alcoholism to appear in older years of life.

The production of alcoholic beverages is directly and causally related to the incidence and
prevalence of alcoholism (Lederman's theory). Countries with the highest production of pure
alcohol have the highest number of alcoholics per year.

According to Jelinek's theory, the frequency of alcoholism can be underestimated in patients

with cirrhosis of the liver, because more than half of all cases are related to alcoholism.

The socio-economic and medical significance of alcoholism is not great. Alcoholics stay out
of work 20-60 days a year. Frequent short absences of 1-2 days after drinking alcohol and
"missing work" for several hours, sickness due to other cardiovascular diseases, injuries 2-3
times more often of a more serious nature.

The antisocial behavior of alcoholics creates a bad scheme of human relations and a work
atmosphere, increases waste, decreases productivity and work performance.
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In countries with developed information systems, the economic consequences of alcoholism

and alcoholic states can be calculated on the basis of production losses, medical treatment costs,
transportation costs, and social assistance.

However, other consequences expressed in other forms can only be partially, or cannot be
quantified in general, such as: disability, disturbed human relations, family problems,
consequences for children's development.

Based on the socio-economic consequences of alcoholism, economists and sociologists

consider alcoholism a primary economic, secondary social, tertiary medical problem.

The life of alcoholics is 20-30 years shorter than the average life expectancy of the population.
Disability of alcoholics occurs 10-20 years earlier than other disabled people. Among disabled
people, 15-25% of alcoholics are dependent on the category of disability.

Picture 1. Alcoholism

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2. Definition of alcohol dependence

The World Health Organization rejected the scientific and backward understanding of
alcoholism as a vice. It determined that alcoholism is a disease, a social and medical problem,
which it defined as excessive alcohol consumption to an extent that disrupts the health,
harmonious interpersonal relationships and psychological peace of the participants.Such persons
finally reach the stage of complete physical and psychological dependence, tyrannical desires
and alcohol.

Picture 2. Alcohol addiction

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3.Etiology of alcoholism

Alcoholism is a biological, psychological, and social disorder. In an interactional fashion, each

factor can be decisive, but only one sign defines alcoholism.

There are three basic theories about the etiology of alcoholism:

1. medical (biological) which purifies physiological samples;

2. psychological, which primarily deals with personality structure and psychological
mechanisms;
3. sociological, which sees the cause of alcoholism in the socio-cultural interaction of the
individual and the environment.

As for the perceived follow-up of alcoholism as such (as opposed to the problem of causing
illness in the next generation due to alcoholism in the previous one), Mott puts the problem well
when he says: "The same thing produces the same thing, but sometimes the tendency towards it
is passed on, so we also pass on the inheritance of the weakness of the moral feeling, making
certain individuals more susceptible to temptation and temptation."

In our regions, the first contact with alcohol occurs at a very young age, it is not uncommon
for parents to give children aged 7-8 years of drinking, a little red wine for "better blood feud".

According to the way of origin and development of alcoholism, the most acceptable division is:

primary alcoholism occurs in people who do not have any mental problems and who represent
long-term drinking, which is more determined by the influence of the environment.

secondary or symptomatic alcoholism – occurring subsequently in people who, before the start
of regular drinking, had no mental or physical problems.

combined alcoholism - would represent a combination of these two types of alcoholism. A

person who is born in the middle comes into contact with alcohol, drinks moderately for a while,
and then, in a special mental situation, begins to drink excessively and becomes independent.

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4. Psychic consequences of alcoholism

According to the ICD-10 classification, there is a group of disorders marked as F10 Mental
disorders and behavioral disorders due to the use of alcohol. Those disorders include psychotic
disorders and alcohol-dependent persons:

Abstinence syndrome with delirium F10.4 (Delirium tremensalcoholicum) It most often

occurs after the cessation or significant reduction of alcohol consumption. It occurs suddenly,
acutely and manifests as a disturbance of consciousness with the appearance of illusions and
hallucinations of a frightening character, psychomotor restlessness, amnesia for the duration of
delirium. Aggression is a common characteristic of delirious patients (although not all of them).

Pathological drunkenness
Acute alcoholic delirium is a state where the dominant symptom is acute narrowing of
consciousness. The person is unrecognizable in their surroundings, disoriented in space and
time. There is an abundance of frightening visions and hallucinations that potentiate fear,
psychomotor restlessness, leading to horrific crimes. The attack ends with a terminal dream.
What is important to emphasize is that these mental disorders must not occur only when
provoked by small amounts of alcohol, but can occur suddenly, in the midst of ordinary
drunkenness. Although the genesis of this dark state is still unknown, it has been noticed that it
occurs especially in people with CNS damage, for example in epileptics, patients who have
suffered major head trauma, that is, they have recovered from infections and repercussions of
damage to brain structures.

Residual nonpsychotic disorder and psychotic disorder with late onset F 10.7
These are disorders in which changes in cognition, affect, personality or behavior caused by
alcohol last longer than the period when their direct effects are extinguished.

DementiaF 10.73
The most common symptoms are severe character changes, dysarthric speech, violent changes in
the affective tone of the mood, moral deterioration of the personality, tremors, polyneuritis.
Atrophic processes in the area of the brain most likely accompany alcoholism. Often, such
cortical atrophy is accompanied by a non-clinical picture of dementia. Diseases of the brain
caused by excessive alcohol consumption account for approximately 10% of the causes of
dementia in adults.

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5. Multidisciplinary and intersectoral work in

the treatment of alcohol addiction

In summary, the etiology of alcoholism is multifactorial, the treatment of alcoholics is

multidimensional, comprehensive, continuous and long-term.

The treatment of alcoholics is complex and consists of several methods:

- medication therapy,
- psychotherapeutic treatment (individual, family, group),
- social therapy and occupational therapy,
- integral approach (bio-psycho-social)

Today it is difficult to say which method is more effective in the treatment of alcoholism,
because modern treatment requires a wide, even, equal application of all methods.

It is necessary to differentiate the treatment of alcoholics in the narrow sense of the treatment
of physical and mental complications. The basis of the treatment is not only the achievement of
abstinence, but a change in behavior, changes in lifestyle, acceptance of a better quality of life.

Today the prevailing opinion is that an alcoholic can never return to a state of moderate,
controlled drinking. This professional attitude is experienced by many alcoholics as a disability,
and by others as a healthy way of life.

All alcoholism disorganizes the family. Family therapist considers alcoholism to be a disease of
the whole family, not only of the individual who gave in to alcohol, it needs the treatment of the
whole family.

Alcoholism is a curable disease. Using the conventional medical model (pharmacotherapy and
individual treatments), 15-25% of alcoholics are cured, and 75% with complex or systematic
treatment.

Modern treatment of alcoholism lasts from three to five years. This concept of treatment
includes various institutions and programs through which an alcoholic passes with his family, in
order to gain self-control and self-confidence from doctors of family medicine, counseling,
dispensaries, hospitals and treatment clubs.

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CONCLUSION

Alcoholism has a wide range of social and psychological consequences, and it is very important
to recognize alcoholic behavior and psychological changes and their connection with alcohol
consumption in time, so that alcoholism treatment can be started on time, and therefore the
treatment of alcoholism can be more successful, because as and with other chronic diseases, the
longer alcoholism lasts, the resulting changes become irreversible.

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LITERATURE
 https://sr.m.wikipedia.org/sr
 https://www.stetoskop.info/dusevne-bolesti-i-stanja-bolesti-zavisnosti-
psihij/alkoholizam
 http://www.vmspd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/3.ALKOHOLIZAM-
Sestre-u-mentalnom-zdravlju.pdf

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