About half of state prison inmates and 40% of federal prisoners incarcerated for committing violent crimes report they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of their offense. Overall, about three-quarters of all prisoners in 1997 were involved in alcohol or drug abuse in some way in the time leading up to their current offense. In 1995, there were 51,737 federal prisoners and 224,900 state prisoners who were incarcerated because of alcohol or drug abuse (U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, 1997).

Alcohol disorders and alcohol-related problems are more common among men than women (Kessler et al., 1994), but women with alcoholism are more prone to a fulminant clinical course. Women are more likely to die of cirrhosis and violence caused by alcohol abuse and die 11 years earlier than their male counterparts (Krasner, Davis, Portmann, & Williams, 1977).

Individuals in stable marriages have the lowest incidence of lifetime prevalence of alcoholism, 8.9%, as opposed to cohabiting adults who have never been married,  29.2%  (Helzer,  Burnam,  &  McEvoy,  1991).  The only racial group that seems to have some protection from alcoholism is Asians, perhaps the result of the discomfort of a flushing response present in many of these individuals when they drink (Hsu et al., 1996). There are higher rates of alcoholism in the unemployed, laborers and those of lower socioeconomic status, those who drop out of high school and those who entered college but failed to earn a degree, and those under more stress (Crum, 1998).

Alcohol kills cells
Continual use of alcohol can lead to erosive gastritis, which can limit the absorption of nutrients and vitamins associated with several serious neurological and mental disorders,  including brain damage,  memory loss, loss of sexual responsiveness, sleep disturbances, and psychosis such as Wernike’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome.

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Robert R. Perkinson,  PHD
Helping Your Clients Find the Road to Recovery

Alcoholism - Treatment.  I.  Title.
RC565.P375 - 2004
616.86’10651- dc22