Alcohol Abuse in America
Alcohol addiction is a mental illness that affects millions of Americans yearly. It impacts millions of lives and has a devastating effect on families and communities.
Alcoholism is defined as a mental disorder that compels a person to repeatedly consume alcohol and engage in behaviors related to drinking, even though they have negative consequences.
Quick Facts:
- How many Americans consume alcohol: The 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicated that 85.6 percent of people aged 18 and up reported that they drank alcohol at some point in their lives. 69.5 percent reported that they drank in the past year, and 54.9 percent (59.1 percent of men in this age group and 51.0 percent of women in this age group) reported that they drank in the past month.
- Stats on binge drinking and heavy alcohol use: 25.8 percent of people aged 18 and older reported that they engaged in binge drinking in the past month, according to the 2019 NSDUH study. 6.3 percent of people in the study reported that they engaged in heavy alcohol use in the past month.
Alcohol Use Disorder
- According to the study, in 2019, a staggering 14.5 million people ages 12 and older had alcohol use disorder (AUD). This figure consists of 9 million men and 5.5 million women.
- More alarming statistics from this study show that an estimated 414,000 adolescents aged between 12 and 17 had AUD.
Alcoholism Treatment in the USA
- Around 7.2 percent of people with AUD received treatment for their addiction in the past year. According to the study, only 6.4 percent of adolescents aged between 12 and 17 with AUD received treatment in the same period.
- Less than 4 percent of people receiving treatment for AUD were prescribed a medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat their addiction.
- People with alcohol use disorder were more likely to seek treatment from a primary care physician for a medical problem caused by alcohol use, rather than seeking treatment in the form of inpatient rehab or similar programs.
Alcohol Fatalities and Emergencies
- All alcohol-related emergency department visits increased to 47 percent between 2006 and 2014, which means an average annual increase of 210,000 alcohol-related emergency department visits.
- About 18.5 percent of emergency department visits are directly related to alcohol.
- Around 95,000 people die from alcohol-related causes each year, making alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of death in America. Between 2011 and 2015, the main causes of death attributed to alcohol were due to chronic conditions such as liver disease, heart disease, and stroke, liver cancer, breast cancer, hypertension, and unspecified liver cirrhosis.
- In 2019 alone, driving fatalities caused by people driving under the influence accounted for 10,142 deaths in the United States.
The Economic Burden of Alcohol Abuse
- Alcohol abuse cost the United States $249 billion in 2010.
- Binge drinking contributes to three-quarters of this total cost.
Get Treatment for Alcohol Addiction
Alcohol addiction is a serious problem and can ruin your life and those of the people around you. Fortunately, help is available. Get in touch with us today so that one of our compassionate treatment navigators can help you find the right individualized treatment center. We are able to guide you to an inpatient rehab center anywhere in the country.