Full Description
This text provides up-to-date, comprehensive, and accessible information about alcohol use in western society and other cultures.
In 2009, President Barack Obama hosted a friendly "beer summit" on the White House lawn in an attempt to diffuse a racially charged incident between a Caucasian policeman and an African American professor. In the United States, beer and other alcoholic beverage companies are often the main advertisers during television sporting event coverage. A study has found that 44 percent of American college students participate in binge drinking, while the NHTSA reports that over 31 percent of traffic fatalities involve a driver with an illegal blood-alcohol content level. In our culture, consumption of alcohol is both widely accepted as a healthy social norm and condemned as a crime.
Alcohol provides information about how alcohol acts upon the body, the social problems related to alcohol use, medical disorders connected to alcohol use, alcohol use throughout world cultures and the American population, and public policy issues. This book also contains sections on adolescent and college student alcohol use.
Contents
Series Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments
Part I: History and Scientific Background—Alcohol: An Overview
1 Alcohol: The Basics
2 Alcohol Taken Together with Other Drugs
3 Key Terms and Definitions
4 Risk Factors for Alcohol Misuse and Worsening of Abuse
5 Phases and Stages of Alcoholism: Theoretical Considerations
6 Alcohol and Social Problems
7 Alcohol and Medical Problems
8 Alcohol and Sexuality
9 Alcohol and the Family
10 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
11 Treatment and Recovery
12 Alcohol Use among Women
13 Alcohol Use among Adolescents
14 Alcohol Use among College Students
15 Alcohol Use among Older Adults
16 Alcohol Use among Ethnic Minorities
Part II: Controversies
17 Alcohol-Policy Perspectives
18 Key Issues and Controversies
19 Rates of Alcohol Consumption Worldwide
20 Culture and Alcohol Use
Part III: References and Resources
A Screening and Assessment Instruments
B Alcohol Periodicals and Journals
C Additional Resources
D Chronology
References
Index
