Overview

Alcohol use affects, either directly or indirectly, nearly all facets of Western civi- lization. Eastern cultures are also not exempt from the influence of alcohol, and the present decade has been a time of increased alcohol use in all parts of the world. The problems of alcohol abuse and alcoholism are of concern to a variety of professionals in the biomedical and psychosocial health sciences, and-although the alcohol research literature contains much information on the relationships between alcohol ingestion and physiological, neurochemical, pharmacologic, genetic, environmental, and psychological effects in humans and in subhuman spe- cies-there is at the present time no advanced textbook that integrates the avail- able information for use by both students and professionals. The writing of Medical and Social Aspects of Alcohol Abuse constitutes an attempt to create a scholarly reference and resource for students, researchers, prac- ticing clinicians, and paraprofessionals who wish to understand the complex inter- play of factors related to acute and chronic alcohol intoxication, the effects of alco- hol on body functions, and treatment approaches to alcohol abusers and alcoholics.