The actions of the person who abuses alcohol are not performed in a vacuum and affect many people around them,  including strangers.  For example,  the individual who drives drunk may kill or permanently maim others that he or she crashes into with a motor vehicle.  For years, drunk drivers repeatedly drove drunk with few legal repercussions, until bereaved mothers started Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).  Our section discusses drunk driving,  its consequences and its punishments, in detail.

Individuals who abuse or depend on alcohol are more likely to behave aggressively toward others, exhibiting violence toward their spouses, partners, their own children, and the children of others. Our section discusses violence and child abuse that stem from abuse of and dependence on alcohol.

I am a medical school professor and chair of the psychiatry department at a prestigious medical school. I am also a researcher and addiction expert who has studied substance use, abuse, and dependence for many years, as well as mentored young scientists in this area of research. I am well versed in the pros and cons of the use of alcohol as well as the devastation that alcohol dependence inflicts upon the individual sufferer and those around him or her.  It is my hope that readers will find the answers that they need from the information provided in my section.

As of this writing,  progress on the full effects of alcohol on the brain and behavior is rapidly ongoing, and these findings will ultimately result in the development of newer and more powerful medications to help block the effects of alcohol and prevent relapse.  In the meantime,  I have been guided by the exceptionally good five-year outcomes that have been reported with physician alcoholics as well as by the experiences over more than the past two decades at the Betty Ford Center in understanding effective interventions and gold standard treatment and follow-up.

—Mark S. Gold, M.D.
Donald R. Dizney Eminent Scholar and Distinguished Professor, University of Florida College of Medicine &  McKnight Brain Institute Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Anesthesiology,  Community Health & Family Medicine Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry