National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Underage possession of alcohol is illegal in the United States, and the minimum legal drinking age is 21. The earlier that a young person starts to drink, the more likely they are to have alcohol-related problems as a teenager or adult. Drinking at a young age greatly increases the risk for many problems now and in adulthood. Drinking alcohol can...

Bethesda, Maryland. April 3, 1999 - Free, anonymous screenings for alcohol problems will be available Thursday, April 8, during the first-ever National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD), a public service event of National Alcohol Awareness Month. A national effort to increase the identification and awareness of alcohol problems, NASD is offered through a partnership of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse...

Asking emergency department patients about their alcohol use and talking with them about how to reduce harmful drinking patterns is an effective way to lower rates of risky drinking in these patients, according to a nationwide collaborative study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Emergency...

Harmful and underage college drinking are significant public health problems, and they exact an enormous toll on the intellectual and social lives of students on campuses across the United States. Drinking at college has become a ritual that students often see as an integral part of their higher education experience. Many students come to college with established drinking habits, and the college environment can exacerbate the problem.

Research shows that alcohol use and misuse among women are increasing. While alcohol misuse by anyone presents serious public health concerns, women who drink have a higher risk of certain alcohol-related problems compared to men.

"Alcohol and Your Health-Where Do You Draw the Line?" is the question to be posed once again on Thursday, April 7, when National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) marks its 7th year. Since NASD originated in 1999, a steadily growing one-quarter million participants have addressed that question head on at thousands of NASD sites across the country. Sites registered for 2005...

With a brief intervention, you can help patients who drink too much to cut back or quit alcohol use as needed.

June 1, 2022

This article was first published in NIAAA Spectrum Volume 14, Issue 2. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health , more than half of Americans ages 18 and older reported drinking alcohol in the past month, and about a quarter of this same group reported past-month binge drinking. To help adults who drink alcohol to better...

Carrying a gene variant that affects the release of a specific brain protein may put one at greater risk of developing an alcohol use disorder, according to the results of a recent animal study. The study was led by Professor Dorit Ron, PhD, Endowed Chair of Cell Biology of Addiction, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, and was...

It’s always a good idea to periodically examine your relationship with alcohol. A popular way to do this is to participate in a sober month like Dry January or Sober October, which are health and wellness trends that emphasizes taking a break from alcohol for an entire month.

Harmful and underage college drinking are significant public health problems, and they exact an enormous toll on the intellectual and social lives of students on campuses across the United States. Learn more... Visit NIAAA's site CollegeDrinkingPrevention.gov -- your one-stop resource for comprehensive research-based information on issues related to alcohol abuse and binge drinking among college students Read NIAAA's fact sheet...

April 23-24, 1998 • Ramada Inn • Bethesda, Maryland Introduction The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and its co-sponsors, the Office of Research on Women’s Health and the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, convened a Working Group on Prevention of Risk Drinking in Pregnancy on April 23 through 24, 1998, in Bethesda, Maryland, to discuss...

Alcohol screening and brief intervention ranks highly among effective preventive services based on its cost-effectiveness and potential to reduce clinically preventable burden. Screening for heavy drinking can be done easily and effectively if you make it a routine part of care and use a brief tool recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that identifies people with unhealthy alcohol use.

Based on just two questions from a newly released guide, health care professionals could spot children and teenagers at risk for alcohol-related problems. Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide is now available from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Developed in collaboration with the American Academy...

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:00

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:00

According to the results of a recent NIAAA-funded animal study, carrying a gene variant that affects the release of a specific brain protein may increase the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder. The protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), affects the survival of existing neurons and the growth of new neurons and synapses, the junctures through which cell-to-cell communication occurs...

Alcohol misuse: Drinking in a manner, situation, amount, or frequency that could cause harm to the person who drinks or to those around them. For individuals younger than the U.S. Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21, or for pregnant females, any alcohol use constitutes alcohol misuse. Alcohol use disorder (AUD): AUD is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder characterized by an...

Underage drinking is a serious public health problem in the United States. Alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among America’s youth, and drinking by young people poses enormous health and safety risks.

What Is Binge Drinking? The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08%—or 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter—or more. This typically happens if a woman has four or more drinks, or a man has five or more drinks, within about 2 hours...

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as “a problematic pattern of alcohol use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress,” and is diagnosed as mild, moderate, or severe based on the number of symptoms, out of a possible 11, in the past 12 months.

Physicians often fail to counsel their young adult patients about excessive alcohol use, according to a study led by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIAAA guidelines for low risk drinking call for men to drink no more than four drinks in a day and no more than 14 drinks...