Alcohol Addiction: One Entity or Different Entities? A DSM-4-Based Attempt Toward a Geographicization of Alcohol Addiction and Abuse

Allaman Allamani; Fabio Voller; Stefano Bravi; Pasquale Pepe; Marco Biffino; Paolo Massimo Buscema; Guido Maurelli; Giulia Massini; S Einstein; Jakob Manthey; Jürgen Rehm

doi:10.1093/alcalc/agac021

Alcohol Addiction: One Entity or Different Entities? A DSM-4-Based Attempt Toward a Geographicization of Alcohol Addiction and Abuse

Alcohol Alcohol. 2022 Nov 11;57(6):687-695. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agac021.

Authors

Allaman Allamani¹, Fabio Voller¹, Stefano Bravi¹, Pasquale Pepe¹, Marco Biffino², Paolo Massimo Buscema^{3

4}, Guido Maurelli⁴, Giulia Massini⁴, S Einstein⁵, Jakob Manthey^{6

7

8}, Jürgen Rehm^{9

10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Agenzia Regionale di Sanita' Toscana, Firenze 50141, Italy.
² Epidemiologia, ASL Toscana Centro, Firenze 50135, Italy.
³ Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Colorado, Denver, CO 80204, USA.
⁴ Semeion Research Centre of Sciences of Communication, Rome 00128, Italy.
⁵ Institute for the Study of Substance Use and Misuse; Middle Eastern Summer Institute on Drug Use; Founding Editor, Substance Use & Misuse, 9380140, Israel.
⁶ Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy and Center of Clinical Epidemiology and Longitudinal Studies (CELOS), Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden 01187, Germany.
⁷ Centre for Interdisciplinary Addiction Research, UKE Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
⁹ Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON M5S 2S1, Canada.
¹⁰ Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7, Canada.
¹¹ Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada.
¹² Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 1R8, Canada.

PMID: 35596950
DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agac021

Abstract

Aim: To examine whether in Europe perceptions of 'alcoholism' differ in a discrete manner according to geographical area.

Method: Secondary analysis of a data set from a European project carried out in 2013-2014 among 1767 patients treated in alcohol addiction units of nine countries/regions across Europe. The experience of all 11 DSM-4 criteria used for diagnosing 'alcohol dependence' and 'alcohol abuse' were assessed in patient interviews. The analysis was performed through Multiple Correspondence Analysis.

Results: The symptoms of 'alcohol dependence' and 'alcohol abuse', posited by DSM-IV, were distributed according to three discrete geographical patterns: a macro-area mainly centered on drinking beer and spirit, a culture traditionally oriented toward wine and a mixed intermediate alcoholic beverage situation.

Conclusion: These patterns of perception seem to parallel the diverse drinking cultures of Europe.

MeSH terms

Alcohol Drinking / adverse effects
Alcohol Drinking / epidemiology
Alcoholism* / diagnosis
Alcoholism* / epidemiology
Beer
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Europe / epidemiology
Humans
Wine