26. April 2010 by stationmanager.

 The article below is from the year 2000 but, I thought it important enough to reprint here so that perhaps a little wider audience might be exposed to the ongoing conversation pertaining to drug and alcohol abuse and public policy. 

  By Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Julius B. Richmond,                     Louis W. Sullivan and David Satcher*                 The study published this week in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) which finds that underage drinkers and adult excessive drinking account for half of the alcohol consumed in the U.S. has profound ramifications for public policy, parents and the alcohol industry.                  The peer-reviewed analysis reveals that in 1999 (the last year for which necessary data was available) children and underage drinkers consumed 19.7 percent and excessive adult drinking accounted for 30.4 percent of the beer, wine and liquor consumed in the United States.  And that estimate of misuse and abuse of alcohol is probably conservative.  Researchers used the federal government’s health standard for men—in excess of two drinks a day–to calculate the amount of adult excessive drinking for both men and women, when the health standard for women is in excess of one drink a day because of differences in body water and the way in which women metabolize alcohol.                Drinking is a fatal attraction for America’s children and underage drinkers.  Alcohol is a major contributor to the three leading causes of teen death: accidents, homicide and suicide.  Individuals who begin drinking before age 21 are likelier to become adult excessive drinkers.  They are more than twice as likely to develop alcohol related problems.  Biomedical research had found that alcohol alters the developing brain and may cause irreversible brain damage.                Moreover, for young Americans there is a correlation between alcohol use and illegal drug use.  The Directors of the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse point out that “12 to 17 year old youth who consumed alcohol in the past month were 7.6 times more likely to use illicit drugs than those who did not.”  Although a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that moderate drinking may have some beneficial impact on the heart, there is resounding evidence that excessive drinking is linked to serious health problems such as liver disease, high blood pressure, stroke and many cancers.  Alcohol is the number one drug involved in crimes such as rape, assault and murder and in child abuse, domestic violence, family breakup and accidents.  In the population 12 and older, heavy binge drinkers (five drinks at one sitting at least five times a month) are eleven times more likely to use illicit drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin.Of Americans who drink, 76 percent are adult moderate drinkers who consume 34 percent of the alcohol.  Nine percent are adult excessive drinkers who consume 46.3 percent of the alcohol.  The remaining 15 percent are underage drinkers who consume 19.7 percent of the alcohol.With these revelations about underage and adult excessive drinking, the beer, wine and hard liquor companies face a choice.  They must now decide whether they are prepared to cooperate with the public health community to curb such drinking, or whether they intend to walk the walk of the cigarette companies, undermining legislative public health initiatives and fighting lawsuits that claim their marketing activities have encouraged such drinking.  One marker of good faith would be for the alcohol industry to endow a truly independent foundation to mount an aggressive campaign to combat underage and adult excessive drinking.  We do not expect an industry that gets half its sales from such drinking to mount a credible campaign against it with institutions like the Century Council, which it controls.                The industry should also voluntarily label its products, detailing all the ingredients and specifying the caloric content.  In a survey of girls and young women, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that only 56 percent knew alcohol is high in calories and contributes to weight gain. Another 5.7 percent thought that drinking alcohol makes one lose weight (not surprisingly, these young women drank more than the others).  Every beer container and bottle of wine and hard liquor should bear a label warning against underage and excessive adult drinking and listing the consumption standards established by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture—e.g., “More than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women is hazardous to your health.”                Federal, state and local governments can promote the public health and ease their budgetary problems by increasing taxes on beer, wine and liquor.  Increasing the cost of alcoholic beverages offers a triple win to hard pressed governments: it will discourage underage and adult excessive drinking and decrease the related health care and criminal justice costs, it will lower their deficits, and it will reduce illegal drug use.                Alcohol is the number one drug of abuse for young Americans.  Revealing the widespread extent of underage drinking and the often related adult excessive drinking triggers a loud alarm for parents and schools: Underage drinking can no longer be winked at as an inevitable rite of passage; it must be recognized as the grim game of Russian roulette it is, a game far too dangerous to ignore or accept among our youngsters.          

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11. April 2010 by stationmanager.

A man named William Borchert has written a book titled “The Lois Wilson Story–When Love is not enough” that has been made into a movie. The movie will premier on the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” on the CBS network April 25th,2010 at 9:00 PM EST, and stars Winona Ryder as Lois Wilson, the founder of Al-Anon, and Barry Pepper as her husband Bill Wilson, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. This woman was one of the most important and influential people of the twentieth century. Without her, there would have been no Alcoholics Anonymous or Al-Anon Family Groups, and millions of people that have used these programs to  recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body, would still be suffering.

I suggest you put it on your calendar and invite some friends over to watch it with you. Whether you are in Recovery or not, you will be amazed how the faith of this woman changed the world. Here are some things other people have to say about Lois Wilson, Mr. Borcherts book, and the movie. Enjoy.

THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN WOMAN WHO CREATED A WORLD WIDE MOVEMENT TO SAVE MILLIONS OF FAMILIES FROM THE DEVASTATION OF ALCOHOL AND DRUGS

About the Book
Near the bottom of her husband Bill’s downward spiral into alcoholic hell, when he collapsed one night in a drunken stupor in the hallway of their Clinton Street, Brooklyn home, Lois Wilson felt she could bear no more. Pounding hysterically on his chest, she screamed out in despair: “You don’t even have the decency to die!” The compelling story behind this painful, oft-repeated scene eventually led to two of the most important movements of the twentieth century: Alcohol Anonymous and Al-Anon.

Lois Wilson, the wife of the man who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), stuck by her husband through his seventeen years of tormented and abusive alcoholic drinking, believing that her unconditional love could get him sober. But it could not. The daughter of well-to-do parents, this loving and determined women watched her husband, Bill Wilson, destroy his career, his relationships and his health, checking into and out of alcoholic sanatoriums as he neared the point of insanity and death. Finally, through a life-changing spiritual experience, the fellowship of AA was born.

It was through Lois Wilson’s heart-rending, emotional struggle and her witnessing other spouses and children similarly impacted that she came to realize that alcoholism is a family disease and that the solution was a program for recovery, a family support group that came to be known as Al-Anon.

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4. April 2010 by stationmanager.

   Substance Abuse treatment and Mental Health are the topics of this post— two things we should all be concerned about. This is additional data from the latest SAMHSA survey.

   For the complete survey results in easy to navigate form  click here

Substance Dependence, Abuse, and TreatmentIn 2008, an estimated 22.2 million persons (8.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older) were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year based on criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV). Of these, 3.1 million were classified with dependence on or abuse of both alcohol and illicit drugs, 3.9 million were dependent on or abused illicit drugs but not alcohol, and 15.2 million were dependent on or abused alcohol but not illicit drugs.Between 2002 and 2008, there was no change in the number of persons with substance dependence or abuse (22.0 million in 2002 and 22.2 million in 2008).The specific illicit drugs that had the highest levels of past year dependence or abuse in 2008 were marijuana (4.2 million), followed by pain relievers (1.7 million) and cocaine (1.4 million).In 2008, adults aged 21 or older who had first used alcohol at age 14 or younger were more than 5 times as likely to be classified with alcohol dependence or abuse than adults who had their first drink at age 21 or older (15.1 vs. 2.6 percent).The rate of substance dependence or abuse for males aged 12 or older in 2008 was nearly twice as high as the rate for females (11.5 vs. 6.4 percent). Among youths aged 12 to 17, however, the rate of substance dependence or abuse was higher among females than males (8.2 vs. 7.0 percent).Between 2002 and 2008, the percentage of youths aged 12 to 17 with substance dependence or abuse declined from 8.9 to 7.6 percent.Treatment need is defined as having a substance use disorder or receiving treatment at a specialty facility (hospital inpatient, drug or alcohol rehabilitation, or mental health centers) within the past 12 months. In 2008, 23.1 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem (9.2 percent of persons aged 12 or older). Of these, 2.3 million (0.9 percent of persons aged 12 or older and 9.9 percent of those who needed treatment) received treatment at a specialty facility. Thus, 20.8 million persons (8.3 percent of the population aged 12 or older) needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem but did not receive treatment at a specialty substance abuse facility in the past year.Of the 20.8 million people in 2008 who were classified as needing substance use treatment but did not receive treatment at a specialty facility in the past year, 1.0 million persons (4.8 percent) reported that they felt they needed treatment for their illicit drug or alcohol use problem. Of these 1.0 million persons who felt they needed treatment, 233,000 (23.3 percent) reported that they made an effort to get treatment, and 766,000 (76.7 percent) reported making no effort to get treatment. Mental HealthSerious mental illness (SMI) among adults is defined in Public Law 102-321 as persons aged 18 or older who currently or at any time in the past year have had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders) of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within DSM-IV that has resulted in functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. In 2008, there were an estimated 9.8 million adults with SMI, representing 4.4 percent of adults.Rates of SMI in 2008 were highest for adults aged 18 to 25 (7.4 percent) and lowest for adults aged 50 or older (2.3 percent).The prevalence of SMI among women aged 18 or older (5.6 percent) was higher than that among men in that age group (3.0 percent).The rate of SMI was higher among adults who were unemployed (8.0 percent) than among those who were employed full time (3.5 percent) or part time (4.8 percent).SMI in the past year was associated with past year substance dependence or abuse. Among adults aged 18 or older with SMI in 2008, 25.2 percent (2.5 million) were dependent on or abused illicit drugs or alcohol. The rate among adults without SMI was 8.3 percent (17.9 million).Among the 9.8 million adults with SMI in 2008, 5.7 million (58.7 percent) used mental health services in the past year. Among all adults with SMI, 52.6 percent received a prescription medication, 40.5 percent received outpatient services, and 7.5 percent received inpatient services for a mental health problem in the past year.Among the 2.5 million adults with both SMI and substance dependence or abuse (i.e., a substance use disorder) in 2008, more than half (60.5 percent) received mental health care or substance use treatment at a specialty facility; 11.4 percent received both mental health care and specialty substance use treatment, 45.2 percent received only mental health care, and 3.7 percent received only specialty substance use treatment.In 2008, an estimated 8.3 million adults (3.7 percent) had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year. The rate was 3.9 percent among women and 3.4 percent among men. The rate was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (6.7 percent) compared with adults 26 to 49 (3.9 percent) and adults aged 50 or older (2.3 percent).Among adults aged 18 or older in 2008, 2.3 million (1.0 percent) made suicide plans in the past year, and 1.1 million (0.5 percent) reported attempting suicide. A half million adults reported staying overnight in a hospital as a result of their suicide attempt in the past year.In 2008, 6.4 percent of persons aged 18 or older (14.3 million persons) had at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year. Over 1 in 25 adults (4.2 percent or 9.5 million persons) had past year MDE with severe impairment.In 2008, adults with past year MDE were more likely than those without MDE to be dependent on or abuse illicit drugs or alcohol (20.3 vs. 7.8 percent).Among adults aged 18 or older who had MDE in the past year in 2008, 71.0 percent received treatment (i.e., saw or talked to a medical doctor or other professional or used prescription medication) for depression in the same time period.Among adults aged 18 or older with MDE in the past year in 2008, women were more likely than men to receive treatment for depression in the past year (74.2 vs. 65.0 percent).In 2008, there were 2.0 million youths (8.3 percent of the population aged 12 to 17) who had MDE during the past year. An estimated 1.5 million (6.0 percent) had MDE with severe impairment in one or more role domains (chores at home; school or work; close relationships with family; or social life).The rate of MDE in the past year was higher for adolescent females (12.4 percent) than for adolescent males (4.3 percent). The prevalence of MDE with severe impairment was 9.2 percent for females and 2.9 percent for males.Among 12 to 17 year olds who had past year MDE in 2008, 37.4 percent had used illicit drugs during the same period. This was higher than the rate of 17.2 percent among youths who did not have past year MDE. Similarly, the rates of past month daily cigarette use and heavy alcohol use were higher for youths with MDE (3.6 and 3.4 percent, respectively) than for youths who did not have MDE (1.8 and 1.8 percent, respectively).In 2008, 37.7 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 with past year MDE received treatment for depression (saw or talked to a medical doctor or other professional or used prescription medication). Among youths with past year MDE, 21.7 percent saw or talked to a medical doctor or other professional only, 2.9 percent used prescription medication only, and 13.1 percent received treatment from both sources for depression in the past year.In 2008, 3.1 million youths aged 12 to 17 (12.7 percent) received treatment or counseling for problems with behavior or emotions in the specialty mental health setting (inpatient or outpatient care). Additionally, 11.8 percent of youths received services in the education setting, and 2.9 percent received mental health services in the general medical setting in the past 12 months. Mental health services were received in both the specialty setting and either the education or general medical settings (i.e., care from multiple settings) by 5.3 percent of youths.

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