Abstract
Alcohol dependency syndrome affects a wide spectrum of patients that include all age groups and ethnicities. Alcohol is the world’s third largest risk factor for disease and disability. Four percent of all deaths and 4.6 % of disability-adjusted life-years are attributed to alcohol. As physicians we are seeing an increasing incidence of patients with alcohol related problems including children as young as 10 years. These problems can be either acute, e.g. alcohol intoxication or chronic e.g. liver cirrhosis. As physicians we forget this is a multifactorial condition which has genetic, environmental, psychological, and biological causes. Similarly the consequences of alcohol dependence are multitude; personal, familial, social, economical, etc. to name a few. Having a thorough understanding enables us to formulate immediate and long-term management plans.
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Khan, A., Menon, S., Kunnumpurath, S. (2015). Alcohol Dependence Syndrome. In: Kaye, A., Vadivelu, N., Urman, R. (eds) Substance Abuse. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1951-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1951-2_8
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