The Molecular Pathology of Alcoholism

Alcoholism is one of the most challenging socio-medical problems in Western societies. Alcohol abusers are regarded as some of life's failures and it is a common attitude, even among doctors, to believe that if afflicted individuals were to "pull themselves together" the problem would be instantly solved. This attitude ignores a large mass of evidence in the literature which indicates that abuse and alcohol-related disease is a natural, if not inevitable, progression from heavy social drinking. This book provides an overview of recent developments in biomedical research on alcoholism. It provides substance to the view that alcoholism is an organic disorder that stems from the specific interaction of alcohol and its metabolites with cellular components. This is achieved by three broad lines of investigation: the molecular genetics and enzymology of alcohol; the agents which initiate pathogenic processes in the liver, brain, and fetus; and finally the question of genetic predisposition to alcoholism.