Drinking patterns

For a heavy drinker to make a major change in his drinking patterns requires a reconstruction of his way of life. The drinker must learn over time to see the world in different terms, to cultivate new values and interests, to find or create new physical or social settings, to develop new relationships, to devise new ways of behaving in those new relationships and settings. (110)... 

In summary, the data on prevalence of drinking patterns and problems show that the average U.S. drinker consumes a considerable amount of alcohol in a year. Many personal,. social, and environmental factors arc associated with drinking patterns and drinking problems. Particularly vulnerable in this regard are young adult men (18-25 years old). 

U.S. national surveys of drinking patterns and practices have paid relatively little attention to the elderly (generally, 65 and older) and no attention to young children. The reason in the case of the elderly probably is that this group has consistently shown a low prevalence of heavy drinking and drinking problems. Young children simply have not been sampled. 

Cultural factors have a major influence on drinking patterns and their interpretation in a given society. See this site for an extreme cultural perspective with links to scholarly references. 

F Although the predominant assumption in U.S. and Canadian treatment programs is that abstinence is mandatory, there is evidence that certain individuals can modify their drinking patterns to stable, moderate, nonproblem use. 

One of the strongest proponents of the sociocultural model is Rupert Wilkinson (1970), who argues that alcohol use can be affected by planned policy measures. Wilkinson notes identifiable patterns of alcohol consumption that correspond to low rates of problematic drinking, and he thinks these patterns can be used as guides for ingraining altered drinking patterns in the culture. 

Kngs, R. C., Oicbold, B. A., Hansen, D. J. (1996). The drinking patterns and problems of a national sample of college students, 1994. Journal of Alcohol and Druji Education, 41, 13-33. 

Drinking water exposure was simulated by estimating nocturnal drinking patterns of rats as a continuous activity. For dermal exposure, the rate of 2-butoxyethanol absorption through the skin was also estimated and adjusted according to the in vitro absorption data of Bartnik et al. (1987). A factor was included for dermal metabolism to the 2-butoxyethanol-glucuronide. Inhalation exposure was estimated using the model of Ramsey and Andersen (1984) with a factor for nasal absorption (Dahl et al. 1991). Nasal absorption includes dissolution of the compound in the nasal mucous membrane upon inhalation, and vaporization and elimination from the membranes into expired air. Based on the work of Dahl et al. 

Rossi R, Del PRETE E, Rokitzky J and Schaerer E (1998) Effects of a high NaCl diet on eating and drinking patterns in Pygmy goats. Physiol Behav 63 601-604. 

Strandberg-Larsen K, Gronboek M, Andersen AMN, Andersen PK, Olsen J. Alcohol drinking pattern during pregnancy... 

Mukamal, K.J., Ascherio, A., Mittleman, MA. et al. (2005). Alcohol and risk for ischemic 368 stroke in men the role of drinking patterns and usual beverage. Annals Internal of Medicine, 142,11-19. 

Marques, P. R., R. B. Voas and A. S. Tippetts (2003). Behavioral measures of drinking patterns from the Alcohol Interlock Record. Addict., 98 (Supplement 2), 13-19. 

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