ALCOHOL AND MENTAL DISEASE

Mental health problems not only result from drinking too much alcohol. They can also cause
people to drink too much. There is much more evidence showing that drinking too much
alcohol leads to serious physical and mental illnesses. Put very simply, a major reason for
drinking alcohol is to change our mood - or change our mental state. Alcohol can temporarily
alleviate feelings of anxiety and depression; it can also help to temporarily relieve the
symptoms of more serious mental health problems.
Alcohol problems are more common among people with more severe mental health
problems. This does not necessarily mean that alcohol causes severe mental illness. Drinking
to deal with difficult feelings or symptoms of mental illness is sometimes called selfmedication by people in the mental health field. This is often why people with mental health
problems drink. But it can make existing mental health problems worse.
When we have alcohol in our blood, our mood changes, and our behavior then also changes.
How these change depends on how much we drink and how quickly we drink it. Alcohol
depresses the central nervous system, and this can make us less inhibited in our behavior. It
can also help numb our emotions, so we can avoid difficult issues in our lives.
Alcohol can also reveal or magnify our underlying feelings. This is one of the reasons that
many people become angry or aggressive when drinking. If our underlying feelings are of
anxiety, anger or unhappiness, then alcohol can magnify them.
One of the main problems associated with using alcohol to deal with anxiety and depression
is that people may feel much worse when the effects have worn off. Alcohol is thought to use
up and reduce the amount of neurotransmitters in the brain, but the brain needs a certain level
of neurotransmitters needs to ward off anxiety and depression. This can lead some people to

drink more, to ward off these difficult feelings, and a dangerous cycle of dependence can
develop.
Alcohol-related psychosis is a secondary psychosis that manifests as prominent hallucinations
and delusions occurring in a variety of alcohol-related conditions. For patients with alcohol
use disorder, previously known as alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence, psychosis can
occur during phases of acute intoxication or withdrawal, with or without delirium tremens.
In addition, alcohol hallucinosis and alcoholic paranoia are 2 uncommon alcohol-induced
psychotic disorders, which are seen only in chronic alcoholics who have years of severe and
heavy drinking. Lastly, psychosis can also occur during alcohol intoxication, also known as
pathologic intoxication, an uncommon condition the diagnosis of which is considered
controversial.

In chronic alcoholic patients, lack of thiamine is a common condition. Thiamine deficiency is

known to lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which is characterized by neurological
findings on examination and a confusional-apathetic state. Korsakoff psychosis (or Korsakoff
amnesic- or amnesic-confabulatory state) refers to a state that memory and learning are
affected out of proportion to other cognitive functions in an otherwise alert and responsive
patient.

Alcohol is a neurotoxin that damages the brain in a complex manner through prolonged
exposure and repeated withdrawal, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Alcoholrelated psychosis is often an indication of chronic alcoholism; thus, it is associated with
medical, neurological, and psychosocial complications.
Alcohol-related psychosis spontaneously clears with discontinuation of alcohol use and may
resume during repeated alcohol exposure. Distinguishing alcohol-related psychosis from

schizophrenia or other primary psychotic disorders through clinical presentation often is

difficult. It is generally accepted that alcohol-related psychosis remits with abstinence, unlike
schizophrenia. If persistent psychosis develops, diagnostic confusion can result. Comorbid
psychotic disorders (eg, schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders) and severe
mood disorder with psychosis may exist, resulting in the psychosis being attributed to the
wrong etiology.
Some characteristics that may help differentiate alcohol-induced psychosis from
schizophrenia are that alcohol-induced psychosis shows later onset of psychosis, higher levels
of depressive and anxiety symptoms, fewer negative and disorganized symptoms, better
insight and judgment, and less functional impairment.
Alcohol idiosyncratic intoxication is an unusual condition that occurs when a small amount
of alcohol produces intoxication that results in aggression, impaired consciousness, prolonged
sleep, transient hallucinations, illusions, and delusions. These episodes occur rapidly, can last
from only a few minutes to hours, and are followed by amnesia. Alcohol idiosyncratic
intoxication often occurs in elderly persons and those with impaired impulse control.
Unlike alcoholism, alcohol-related psychosis lacks the in-depth research needed to
understand its pathophysiology, demographics, characteristics, and treatment. This article
attempts to provide as much possible information for adequate knowledge of alcohol-related
psychosis and the most up-to-date treatment. Alcohol is addictive and can lead to
dependency.
This is where the body requires more alcohol to achieve the desired effect (eg, altered mood),
where use of alcohol interferes with a persons life (causing legal, work/study, relationship or
social problems), where a person continues to use alcohol despite alcohol causing physical or
mental problems and, if alcohol is not taken, withdrawal symptoms occur.

The severity of withdrawal symptoms depends on the quantity of alcohol consumed and the
length of the drinking session. Symptoms including shaking of the hands, which commonly
occurs the morning after the drinking session and may be relieved by more alcohol. If alcohol
is not taken, symptoms can progress to insomnia, increased heart rate, temperature and blood
pressure, sweating, agitation, nausea, flushing of the face, nightmares, hallucinations (seeing,
hearing or feeling things that are not present) and fits.
The most serious withdrawal syndrome is delirium tremens, which develops in about 5% of
people with alcohol withdrawal (more if fits are not treated) and by definition includes the
symptom of delirium (an altered and confused state of mind). This syndrome has a death rate
of around 5%.
In people who drink heavily, alcohol commonly causes mood disorders, including depression,
anxiety and psychosis (a mental illness defined by changes in personality, a distorted sense of
reality, and delusions). If these disorders only occur during drinking sessions or withdrawal,
they will usually resolve once drinking is stopped. Alcohol abuse and dependency are also
common in people with pre-existing mental health conditions.

Alcohol and Misconduct

Liquor is related in the brains of numerous individuals with wrongdoing, prostitution, rackets
and different awful or unlawful exercises. There is justification for such conviction. Liquor is
an impartial moral agent, neither great nor terrible, exceptionally subject to misuse. If critics
of alcohol have exaggerated the abuses , wilfully or through unconscious bias , they have had
shining mark for their propaganda .
Similarly few expert lawbreakers are absolute teetotallers; however liquor is presumably a
minor calculate unlawful acts against property. Offense of an authoritative nature, for
example, infringement of alcohol expense laws and regulative mandates, may be slighted in
light of the fact that they are not typically dedicated affected by liquor. Smashed driving is
genuinely unequivocal. There are numerous captures for tipsiness and sloppy behavior that
can be charged specifically to liquor, yet the genuine crux of the arrangement is wrongdoings
of viciousness, particularly those including sex and desire. Not all wrongdoings conferred
affected by liquor, or in the wake of drinking, are created by inebriation. as a rule liquor just
discharges forceful thought processes or persons with criminal goal use liquor to bloster their
activities . Looters, Burglars and executioners don't dull their sharpness with liquor, however
in no way, shape or form all criminal are so decently sorted out .The factual confirmation on
wrongdoing and liquor addiction is neither late nor convincing, yet police, judges , probation
or probation officers and jail chairmen are concurred that alcohol builds the greatness of
issues occurrence to law authorization. Liquor is one component among numerous and
quantitative assessment of its part is dangerous. Educated feeling doles out it a position of
significance as a boost for fights, strike, sex offenses and homicide.

Certain aberrant or guarantee impacts of liquor on issues of behaviour are of sufficient

significance to oblige notice. Changing has presented an influential defence for liquor
addiction of folks as a reason for adolescent wrongdoing, and unlawful or corrupt behaviour.
It is more likely than not a component in wrongness, yet one that is not promptly
differentiated from others. The proclivity between alcohol Traffic and prostitution is very
positive. The business estimation of liquor as a stimulant for venery has made taprooms
focuses of advancement .Houses of prostitution with strict principles of forbearance would
strike supporters as special. The peril of venereal malady is impressively expanded by liquor.
It is not pass that liquor brings resistance down to diseases yet it makes supporters and
whores less specific or segregating and less caution about prophylactic measures. In outline,
the ill-use of liquor signifies a boundless element that forces substantial weights on the
hierarchical structure for upholding ordinary benchmarks of behaviour.

Alcohol and Accidents

The way that such a large number of individuals accept liquor causes mischances,
especially mechanical mishaps and auto collisions, does not demonstrate that its valid. Maybe
it is genuine, yet how does a specialist exhibit the evidence? Affirmation of Earnest Public
pioneers, including police authorities and protection administrators, does not demonstrate it,
Newspaper articles and publications don't create the connections.
Most of the newspapers and television channels frequently report instances of road
deaths due to drunken driving. The issue of drunken driving becomes headline news only
when inebriated celebrities are involved in crashes. Such anecdotal evidence needs to be
bolstered by more systematic studies examining the relationship between alcohol and road
crashes. A survey in Delhi suggested that more than 45% of vehicles were being driven by
drivers who had consumed alcohol. The pub capital of India, Bangalore city, reports the
highest number of road accident deaths on weekends between 6.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m. and
the police attributed it mainly to drunken driving (Agarwal, 2003). In roadside surveys
carried out in Bangalore, 89% of drivers stopped on suspicion of drunken driving by the
police and 37% of drivers checked randomly were breathalyser positive for alcohol (Gururaj
and Benegal, 2002). Previous studies from emergency rooms in New Delhi estimated that 7
29% of accident victims were under the influence of alcohol (Mishra et al, 1984, Adityanjee
and Wig, 1989). But the problem of drunken driving is one of serious proportions as indicated
by the study of Bathra and Bedi (2003) who found that 40% of truck and matador drivers,
60% of car drivers and 65% of two-wheeler drivers were under the influence of alcohol while
driving at night. Mohan and Bawa (1985) in an analysis of police records noticed that 32% of
pedestrian fatalities, 40% of motorized two-wheeler occupant deaths and 30% of bicyclist

deaths occurred between 6 pm to 6 am and alcohol intoxication was a major factor in a

majority of these crashes. Sahadev et al (1994) reported that one-third of the RTI deaths were
linked to alcohol consumption, but are improperly documented in medical records. A crosssectional study of 423 victims of road traffic accidents during 1999-2000 from Nagpur
(Tiwari and Ganveer, 2008) reported that 64.5% of subjects consumed alcohol regularly. In
Delhi, nearly 20% of the 550 students reported pillion-riding with a driver who had
consumed alcohol, indicating the low-risk perception of consequences due to drunken driving
among adolescents (Sharma et al, 2007). Patil from Maharastra reported that nearly 30% of
accident victims were under the influence at the time of reaching hospital (Patil et al, 2008).

Alcohol and Dependency

Research suggests that there is a strong association between poverty, social exclusion
and problematic drug use. Those who are unemployed, particularly long term unemployed, in
poor or insecure housing and are early school leavers have a higher rate of substance abuse
than those who do not fit into these categories. It should be noted, however, that these risk
factors do not determine whether a person abuses drugs or alcohol.
There are many risk factors associated with drug and alcohol abuse. These include
childhood experiences, genes, mental illness and psychological factors. In some cases, people
who are poor also are in high risk factors. But people who are not suffering from poverty also
may embody these risk factors. Unfortunately, many people who are poor become entrenched
in the lifestyle that often includes incarceration, exposure to law enforcement, poor health
outcomes and homelessness. Because of these issues, surveys and research often focuses on
these communities and the result is an over-representation in public health reporting. The
research that suggests that poor people abuse drugs and alcohol is potentially biased because
of this reporting.
The monetary outcomes of consumptions on liquor are noteworthy particularly in
high destitution regions. Other than cash spent on liquor, an overwhelming consumer
additionally endures other unfriendly financial impacts. These incorporate brought down
wages (as a result of missed work and diminished proficiency at work), lost vocation
opportunities, expanded restorative costs for sickness and mishaps, lawful expense of
beverage related offenses, and diminished qualification of advances. A late study led in 11
areas in Sri Lanka analyzing the connection in the middle of liquor and neediness found that
7% of men said that their liquor use was more noteworthy than their wage.

` Despite the fact that a generally little rate, this is still a stressing measurement for
the families concerned and for those keen on helping the most noticeably bad off families
(Baklien & Samarasinghe, 2001).

Alcohol and Family Discord

It is settled that drinking can seriously hinder the singular's working in different social parts.
Liquor abuse is connected with numerous negative results both for the consumer's
accomplice and in addition the youngsters. Maternal liquor utilization amid pregnancy can
bring about fatal liquor disorder in youngsters, and parental drinking is connected with
youngster ill-use and effects a kid's domain in numerous social, mental and monetary ways
(Gmel & Rehm, 2003). Drinking can debilitate execution as a guardian, as a companion or
accomplice, and as a patron to family working. There are additionally different parts of
drinking which may hinder working as a relative. In numerous social orders, drinking may be
done principally outside the family and the home. In this condition, time spent while drinking
frequently rivals the time expected to bear on family life. Drinking additionally costs cash
and can affect upon assets especially of a poor family, leaving other relatives penniless.
Likewise, it is significant that particular inebriated occasions can likewise have enduring
results, through home mischances and family viciousness (Room, 1998; Room et al., 2002).
A late paper by Bonu et al. (2004) recommends that unfavorable youngster wellbeing impacts
of liquor utilization are principally through two distal determinants (roundabout impacts) renounced family unit extra cash and guardians' the ideal time for childcare. Redirection of

inadequate monetary assets for liquor utilize that could have overall been utilized for looking
for health awareness, may prompt selfcare or postpone in looking for human services. The
other potential courses by which liquor utilization can lessen the family wage are through
grimness connected with the drinking propensity among the expending people, bringing
about increment in restorative consumptions and loss of salary because of lost wages, and,
now and then, bringing about the unexpected passing of sole pay workers in a family (Bonu
et al., 2004). Certain in the routine consumer's potential effect on family life is the way that
the drinking and its outcomes can bring about generous emotional well-being issues of
relatives. Such impacts, however possibly normal, are not frequently archived. Some
knowledge into this issue can be picked up from meetings with individuals from Al-Anon, a
sidekick association to Alcoholic Anonymous for life partners and relatives of individuals
with liquor reliance.
In meetings with 45 Al-Anon individuals in Mexico (82% of them the wife of a
spouse who was liquor subordinate), 73% reported emotions of tension, trepidation, and
discouragement; 62% reported physical or verbal hostility by the life partner toward the
family; and 31% reported family breaking down with significant issues including cash and
the youngsters (Rosovsky et al., 1992, refered to in Room et al., 2002). The impacts of men's
drinking on different individuals from the family is frequently especially on ladies in their
parts as moms or wives of consumers. The dangers incorporate savagery, HIV disease, and an
expanded weight in their part of monetary suppliers. In a paper that took a gander at liquor
and liquor related issues confronting ladies in Lesotho, it was noticed that as in numerous
other creating nations, the social position of ladies in Lesotho encourages an endless loop in
which ladies are at one time brewers of liquor, then merchants, then get to be unreasonable
customers because of the issues made by their drinking spouses (Mphi, 1994).

References:
ALCOHOL RELATED HARM ,Implications for Public Health and Policy in India Gururaj G
Professor and Head Department of Epidemiology
Pratima Murthy Professor of Psychiatry Chief, Centre for Addiction Medicine
Girish N Rao Associate Professor Department of Epidemiology
Vivek Benegal Additional Professor of Psychiatry Centre for Addiction Medicine)
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-2/90-98.htm
https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/check-the-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/mentalhealth/alcohol-and-mental-health
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/A/alcohol/