Understanding Alcohol Use Disorder National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

Young antisocial types have the highest rate of other substance abuse disorders, whether it be cigarettes, cannabis, opioids, cocaine or meth. This subtype has the lowest levels of income, education and employment. They also binge drink far more than any other group, but less frequently.

Functional alcoholics consume alcohol daily or at least several times per week. Some outgrow their problem drinking, while others develop an addiction to alcohol as they age. Identifying the specific type of alcoholic makes it easier to understand and treat people’s problems. Nearly one-third of all alcoholics fit into the young adult alcoholic subtype. While two-thirds have sought alcohol rehab for their addiction, it’s important that any treatment program address their co-occurring disorders and include therapies focused on preventing alcohol relapse.

Careers

For example, people with antisocial personality traits or type II alcoholism are expected to be uncooperative and to have low serotonergic activity in the CNS. Moreover, these individuals are expected to be high in novelty seeking and, therefore, low in dopaminergic CNS activity. In contrast, type I alcoholics, who typically are high in harm avoidance and reward dependence, are likely 5 types of alcoholics to be high in both dopaminergic and serotonergic CNS activity (Cloninger 1995). These predictions reflect the empirical findings that type II alcoholics consistently exhibit high novelty-seeking traits and low cooperativeness; however, their levels of harm avoidance may vary. Those within this group most likely would have fit into the Young Antisocial type earlier in their lives.

Each category represents a unique group, but they are all determined by the same factors. Understanding the language used in the study is important for understanding the differences https://ecosoberhouse.com/ between each group. People ages 12 to 20 drink 3.4% of all alcohol consumed in the United States.4 Although youth drink less often than adults, when they do drink, they drink more.

Examples of Typologies Developed in the Post-Jellinek Era

People in this category-type typically start drinking during their late teens – age 17 and onwards but, develop a dependency on alcohol by the time they reach their 30’s. They have low rates of co-occuring mental health issues and having an alcoholic family member. However, some do struggle with other addictions such as to cigarettes or marijuana. For some alcoholics who’ve been excessive drinkers for years, it’s a difficult path to embrace sobriety. They may find it extraordinarily challenging and suffer frequent relapses or give up the goal of sobriety completely. Others, whose drinking is only more recently affecting their lives to a significant degree, may be less affected by the stigma that surrounds the fact that alcoholism changes personality.

Young adult alcoholics also have low rates of co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders and low rates of family alcoholism. According to the study, they have five or more alcoholic beverages on 73% of the days that they drink. Since the type I-type II alcoholism classification was developed, many researchers have confirmed the findings of the original studies and have further investigated differences between the two subtypes. In these studies, the age at onset and the type of alcohol-related problems emerged as the characteristics that most readily distinguished between the two subtypes2 (see table 2) (Babor et al. 1992; Gilligan et al. 1988; von Knorring et al. 1987a).

Coping and support

The validity of this typology has been confirmed in numerous independent investigations, including studies of male and female twins in the United States (Pickens et al. 1991) and a replication of the original Stockholm adoption study. Although the replication study reproduced many of the findings of the original report, some discrepancies also existed. The resolution of these discrepancies will likely require further studies in additional subject populations.