Alcohol dependence: a biobehavioral perspective.

Abstract

The behaviorally based constructs of DSM-III have differentiated alcohol abuse and dependence, wherein the latter has been characterized by: a history of tolerance and physical dependence; and a history of pathological drinking patterns and/or problems consequent to drinking behavior (APA-DSM III 1980). In contrast, ICD-9 refers to an alcohol dependence syndrome which follows the model proposed by Edwards and Gross in 1976. The WHO memorandum on nomenclature and classification of drug and alcohol related problems has further proposed that alcohol dependence be defined along a continuum of severity, and that dependence be differentiated from severity of alcohol related disabilities (Edwards et al. 1981). In many respects, the alcohol dependence syndrome construct is consistent with Jellinek's disease concept of alcoholism which had its antecedents in medical writings of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Lender 1979). Commencing in the early 1960's, many behavioral and social scientists were critical of the disease model of alcoholism. Behavioral researchers found that the drinking behavior of alcoholic subjects could be controlled by its consequences in the laboratory, suggesting that drinking behavior was like any operant. Longitudinal studies of drinking practices suggested that relapse to dependent drinking did not appear to be inevitable. In general, these researchers have utilized behavioral and epidemiological data to prove the null hypothesis: that there was no biological disease behind alcohol addiction. In contrast to the operant studies which served to rebut the disease construct, Ludwig and associates employed a model of Pavlovian conditioning which suggested a relationship between an alcoholic's desire to drink and an increase in autonomic arousal associated with the presence of alcohol (Ludwig et al. 1977).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)