Alcohol misuse Flashcards
Why are women drinking more now than men?
More socially acceptable; more disposable income; more drinks marketed at women; more drinking places aimed at women customers
What are some social and psychological risk factors for alcohol misuse?
Drinking within the family; Childhood problem behaviour relating to impulse control; early use of alcohol, nicotine and drugs; poor coping response to life events; depression as a cause not as a result of problem drinking
Why is there a link between deprivation and alcohol?
Adverse effects of alcohol exacerbated amongst lower socio-economic groups; more likely to experience negative effects directly and indirectly
What are the most common causes of death due to alcohol?
Accidents and violence; malignancies; cerebrovascular disease; coronary heart disease
What is hazardous drinking?
Pattern of alcohol use which increases someone’s risk of harm.
Do men or women metabolise alcohol faster?
Men due to percentage body fat
What are the signs and symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome?
Small Underweight babies, slack muscle tone
Mental retardation, behavioural and speech problems. Characteristic facial appearance
Cardiac, renal and ocular abnormalities
Not known how much is safe to drink, to avoid these
Which cancers does alcohol effect?
25-50% head and neck cancers due to alcohol- mouth, larynx, pharynx oesophagus
Liver stomach colon rectum pancreatic cancer
Breast cancer
In the AUDIT questionnaire for alcohol, which scores are bad?
score of 8 likely hazardous drinking, 13 for women 15 for men indicates alcohol dependence
What is Wernicke’s encephalopathy?
Serious disorder caused by vitamin b1 deficiency, often occurs on withdrawal of alcohol
Triad of symptoms- acute mental confusion, ataxia and opthalmoplegia
Potentially lethal, easily treated by iv/im or oral B1
Reversible
Not treating can leads to Korsakoff’s
What is Korskoff’s syndrome?
Amnestic disorder due to enduring B1 malnutrition
Not reversible
Symptoms of memory loss especially short term memory
Loss loss spontaneity, initiative and confabulation
Diagnosis by CT scanning