In a recent Science Daily release, however, those suffering with an alcohol problem are finding it easier to confide in a member of the clergy. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and Saint Louis University studied 1,910 people dealing with alcohol-related problems and found that 14.7 percent used clergy services.

A study of this group of people also revealed that the majority who had used clergy services also used professional services at some point. Only 0.5 percent of the 14.7 percent using clergy services used them exclusively for alcohol use-related problems.

Professional services tend to be used more commonly than other offerings, yet the findings from this survey suggest that clergy services are important as a part of the overall system of care for those suffering from alcohol-related problems.

There were certain factors identified by researchers as being associated with an increased likelihood of the use of clergy services. These factors included being black, aged 35-54 years, possessing a lifetime history of dependence on alcohol, major depressive disorder and personality disorder.

Researchers suggest that the use of clergy services may be a reflection of other issues for the individual. These issues may include legal, occupational and/or social problems as a result of their consumption of alcohol. In addition, these individuals may be more likely than others to enter treatment by way of the legal system, social services or assistance programs provided by employers.
 

Foundation director David Crosbie said the decision was at odds with one of the government’s stated priorities in the area of preventative health.

"Alcohol abuse is second only to smoking in the number of preventable deaths caused by substance misuse," he said on Monday, adding it cost the economy more than $15 billion each year.

The Henry review had recommended a volumetric tax on all forms of alcohol, saying social costs of alcohol abuse were not effectively targeted by current tax and subsidy arrangements.

Under the present system, cheap wine is taxed at a much lower rate than other forms of alcohol.

The price of a two liter cask of wine (costing $10.99) includes roughly $1.59 of tax while the same volume of alcohol in full strength beer attracts $7.48 in excise, and in spirits the tax is about $16.45.

"The current system is grossly inequitable," Crosbie said.

Taxation was a powerful evidence-based strategy that was able to impact upon the harmful consumption of alcohol. "In over 50 peer reviewed studies around the world, taxation and price increases have been proven to lower consumption rates."

The government ruled out any immediate changes to taxes on alcohol, pointing to a wine glut and industry restructuring that was under way.

Winemakers predictably applauded the decision, saying any increase in taxes on wine would have devastated the industry amid its toughest period in more than two decades.
Chief of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, Stephen Strachan, said taxing wine in the same way as packaged beer would have seen 95 per cent of wine increase in price, sale volumes fall by 34 per cent and about 12,000 jobs lost.

"We don’t deny that alcohol misuse is a problem, but we have to target the causes, not make ordinary Australians pay because we can’t think of any better solutions," he said.

The British Liver Trust and Prima magazine worked together on a joint survey, which identified that one in three women aged over 35 drinks more than they did in their teens. One in five women in the survey admits to regularly binge drinking.

This study comes on the heels of a study conducted by the Department of Health that reveal that diseases caused by lifestyle are increasing rapidly. In fact, deaths from liver disease in England are now above the European average.

According to the survey conducted by the British Liver Trust, women’s favorite alcoholic drink is wine, yet two thirds did not know how many units were in a glass, which can contain three units of alcohol in a 250ml glass of wine.

Alison Rogers, Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust, said: “This survey quantified what we have suspected to be true for a while – unit awareness is staggeringly low among this key age group, special offers in supermarkets incite bulk purchasing and one in ten of respondents do not give their liver a day off from alcohol.

"It is also safe to say that women over the age of 35 do not identify with the ‘binge drinking’ culture, even though one in five of respondents did actually binge drink. It would seem that the term has been too closely connected to younger drinkers and we are missing key audiences who need to be aware of the dangers of overloading their liver with alcohol.”
 

Findings from this study show that glutamate receptor signaling genes that enable brain cells to respond to chemicals, and then to communicate a response, are involved in a person’s LR.

"Alcohol dependence (AD) is a very complex disorder," said Geoff Joslyn in the Science Daily, Joslyn is a senior scientist at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and corresponding author for the study.

"We know that inherited genes account for about half of a person’s risk of becoming AD but this genetic risk is spread across many genes. To simplify the genetic risk, we took advantage of clinical and epidemiological studies that have shown that a person’s innate response to alcohol is related to their risk of becoming AD.

Individuals that have a low response to alcohol, that is people who must drink more than the average person to become drunk, are at a greater risk of becoming AD. We studied this alcohol response because we think it is a sub-component of AD and is much less genetically complex."

Joslyn and colleagues analyzed data on subjects from a long-term study called the San Diego Sibling Pair investigation. All subjects were tested for their LR to alcohol, and a Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was done to determine if a gene set demonstrates a greater genetic association than would normally be found.

Joslyn noted the study suggests that natural, inherited variability in glutamate signaling may contribute to variability in alcohol response. It is hypothesized that it is possible to alter alcohol response through therapies that target altering glutamate signaling.
 

This has not always been the case. Alcohol use and alcoholism was for many generations considered to be a man’s issue, but this appears to have changed significantly over the past 50 years or so. Since World War II there have been many shifts in the drinking habits and alcoholism rates of women. Several factors seem related to this increase in alcohol use and health-related problems for women. Some of these are:

• more social acceptance of women drinking
• more women in the workplace
• change in social roles of women
• less gender stereotyping

The biological makeup of women has been well documented as increasing their susceptibility to alcoholism and to other alcohol-related health issues. This causes several differences in the effects of alcohol consumption between men and women. For example, one drink of alcohol reacts in a woman’s body closer to the way in which two drinks would affect a man. This leads to quicker intoxication, faster development of alcohol dependence and a faster development of alcohol-related health problems such as cirrhosis, hypertension and alcohol-related brain damage.

Women’s bodies contain less water and more fatty tissue than do the bodies of men. Women also have been found to have less dehydrogenase in their bodies. Dehydrogenase is an enzyme necessary for the breakdown of alcohol. They are typically smaller and have less body weight than men which causes women who drink the same amount of alcohol as men to process it slower, feel its effects longer and to become more intoxicated. All of these factors cause women to become intoxicated quicker and stay intoxicated longer than men thus creating the ideal biological environment for alcohol-related complications.

The health risks of alcohol for women occur even in binge drinking and other patterns of alcohol abuse not just in alcohol dependence and, again, are significantly different than for men. For example, women have a greater risk of developing alcohol-related liver and pancreatic conditions in a shorter amount of time than do men. These conditions are also more likely to be of greater severity in women. In fact, statistically, more alcoholic women die from cirrhosis than do alcoholic men. Other serious health issues that appear to increase for women who drink are incidents of ulcers, osteoporosis, heart disease and reproductive problems. Additionally, women with late stage chronic alcoholism tend to develop alcohol-related health complications such as malnutrition and anemia more quickly than their male counterparts who are also in the same stage of illness.

An additional factor for women is that they tend to drink with their male companions or spouses at a similar rate and volume of intake. This is a social dynamic that also contributes to accelerated effects of alcohol use in women compared to men. It appears that the man in a relationship will very frequently set the pattern of alcohol use for the couple. This may be because a couple who drinks together to achieve intoxication will have to accommodate the male’s slower intoxication rate. A woman who drinks with a male companion regularly will then be susceptible to consuming more alcohol than if she were drinking to intoxication by herself.
 

The NHS reports that roughly 9,072 people suffering from the disease were treated in the hospital and the disease caused 1,059 deaths. The mortality rate among 30 to 39-year olds linked with chronic liver disease has increased five times in 25 years.

Other European nations have reported a fall in the rate of the disease. Scotland continues to report more such cases and comes next to Hungary in the number of diagnosed individuals. Nicola Sturgeon, Health Secretary, has said the statistics identify the need to take strict actions on alcohol misuse and there should be a minimum price for drink.

“Most worrying is the increase in alcohol-related problems among young people, who are putting themselves at risk of serious health problems. Alcohol is now around 70 per cent more affordable than it was in 1980 and, over the same period, consumption and alcohol-related harm have spiraled,” Sturgeon said.

“These factors are not unrelated. Cheap alcohol is making a serious situation even worse. By linking price to product strength, minimum pricing will put an end to the sale of high-strength alcohol for less than the cost of bottled water.”

At this present time, the Alcohol Misuse Bill is making its way to the Scottish Parliament, which is meant to introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol.

"Alcohol dependence (AD) is a very complex disorder," said Geoff Joslyn, senior scientist at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center and corresponding author for the study. "We know that inherited genes account for about half of a person’s risk of becoming AD but this genetic risk is spread across many genes. To simplify the genetic risk, we took advantage of clinical and epidemiological studies that have shown that a person’s innate response to alcohol is related to their risk of becoming AD. Individuals that have a low response to alcohol, that is people who must drink more than the average person to become drunk, are at a greater risk of becoming AD. We studied this alcohol response because we think it is a sub-component of AD and is much less genetically complex."

"With complex diseases such as alcoholism, diabetes or cancer, which are caused by many genes working together, there has been a great deal of difficulty identifying "a gene" that represents a good target for developing new medical therapies," said Michael F. Miles, a professor in the departments of pharmacology/toxicology and neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The approach described in this manuscript sidesteps the entire issue of the "gene" and focuses on the functional unit of genes, or biological pathways. So, to paraphrase a mantra from another field, "it’s the network, stupid." By focusing on networks rather than single genes, genetic studies such as genome-wide association studies can have increased power for detecting biological factors affecting complex diseases."

Miles added that, while gene networks have been widely used to analyze data related to different diseases, this study combined several different approaches to improve the yield of significant gene networks associated with AD.

Joslyn and his colleagues analyzed data on subjects selected from a larger, long-term study called the San Diego Sibling Pair investigation: 367 (233 females, 134 males) Caucasian participants 18-25 years old with a positive family history of AD, from 186 independent families. All subjects were tested for their LR to alcohol, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed to determine if a gene set—genes that participate in a common biological function—demonstrate a greater genetic association than would be randomly found.

"We characterized 367 people whose LR to alcohol had been measured in the laboratory," said Joslyn. "We were looking for variation in genes that correlated with variation in alcohol response. No single gene was correlated well enough with alcohol response to be confident that the observation was not just due to statistical fluctuation.

The results suggest that variation in sets of genes that encode the components that enable neuronal communication contribute to individual differences in alcohol LR. The neuronal signaling pathways identified were the same pathways that had been implicated in alcohol response in experimental animal and tissue culture models. Glutamate neurotransmitter signaling systems were most strongly implicated."

"Identifying neuronal signaling genes, including glutamate receptor signaling, in a genetic study of human variation in responses to alcohol is hugely important because it reinforces the years of work that has pointed to single genes in such systems," said Miles. "However, the GSEA largely focuses on previously defined ontology gene sets or known biological pathways. Alternative approaches, such as using novel gene-gene correlation structures derived from protein-protein interaction or microarray expression correlation datasets, might illuminate results from the genome-wide association studies analysis that fall far away from "under the streetlight." Despite this, the recapitulation of glutamate signaling … will more than likely further encourage the search for pharmacological agents targeting glutamate signaling as therapies in alcoholism or alcohol toxicity."

"The results of this study do not suggest any new mechanisms," noted Joslyn, "but rather add corroborative evidence to established ideas. The study does suggest that natural, inherited variability in glutamate signaling may contribute to variability in alcohol response. We thus hypothesize that it is possible to alter alcohol response through therapies that target altering glutamate signaling. It will take many years of further study to determine the validity of the hypothesis and if such therapies can be useful in treating AD."

Burns said he was "shocked" by the number of suspensions, which he described as "totally unacceptable." He added, "The last thing anyone wants to see is schoolchildren staggering drunk in the street.”

"Alcohol abuse and binge drinking, particularly among young people, is an ever increasing problem in our society. It is quite shocking to learn this behaviour is not just restricted to town centers on Friday and Saturday nights, but has now made it into our schools as well,” he said.

"If children are getting so drunk on a regular basis it is affecting their schooling then serious action needs to be taken by both head-teachers and the parents. Harsh discipline needs to be brought to bear both inside and outside the school. The issuing of suspensions in these cases is totally justifiable and that needs to be backed up with further punishment at home," Burns added.

The statistics cover the academic years from 2003-04 to 2007-08 but no details are available on whether the students involved were under the influence of alcohol on their school premises.

Suspension and expulsion figures for the 2008-09 school year will be published in the coming weeks.

Dennis Alich, 57, of Colerain Township, Ohio, registered .309 on a test to measure his intoxication level, a traffic ticket shows. Ohio’s legal limit for driving is .08.

He also had an open container of alcohol in his 1991 Pontiac Grand Am when a Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy pulled him over just before 5:30 p.m. at U.S. 27 and Dry Ridge Road in Colerain Township, records state.

Alich remains at the Hamilton County jail Thursday under $50,000 bond. He faces several charges, including operating a motor vehicle while extremely intoxicated and driving under a suspended license for a previous drunk driving conviction.

The drunken driving arrest is Alich’s seventh since 1991, and is a felony. Court records show that Alich has been convicted of six previous drunk driving offenses, two in Indiana and four in Ohio, between August 1991 and July 2004. Alich served a three-month jail on the last conviction and was released in December 2005.

The Scottish government said the research strengthened its argument for minimum alcohol pricing. The BBC reports that ministers do not have enough support to get the plan through parliament, with opposition parties saying it could be illegal under European competition law.

The research, which looked at the impact of alcohol misuse across society, put a much higher cost on the problem than the £2.25bn figure previously used by the Scottish government.

Using the report’s mid-point estimate of £3.5bn, it calculated the problem was costing the health service £268.8m and social care £230.5m. Crime-related costs were put at £727.1m, while the impact to the economy stood at £865.7m. And the human cost caused by suffering through premature death was estimated at £1.46bn.

Challenging her opponents, Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "The time for stalling is over and the need for action is clear. This report, which takes a more comprehensive view than any previous study, indicates that the total cost of alcohol misuse to Scotland’s economy and society is even worse than we thought."

Minimum pricing forms part of a range of measures to tackle Scotland’s drink problems, contained in the proposed Alcohol Bill. But rival Holyrood parties have maintained their opposition to the move.

Labour health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, said her party had discounted minimum pricing because it was "untested and possibly illegal", adding: "The challenge now is for us to come up with something better."

Deputy Scottish Tory leader Murdo Fraser said his party backed targeted tax rises on known problem drinks, such as super-strength beer and cider.

"We oppose the SNP’s policy of indiscriminate blanket minimum pricing, which is probably illegal, penalises responsible drinkers and will cause immense damage to the Scotch whisky industry," he said.

"The Scottish government would do far better to bring forward measures to tackle irresponsible promotions and selling below cost price,” added the Liberal Democrats’ Robert Brown.