The web-based self-reported survey of Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and associated factors in Japan.

Aim: While considerable data on the alcohol drinking behavior of the general population are available for the United States and Europe, data from Asian countries are scarce. We attempted to estimate the social backgrounds and other factors associated with high Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores in Japan.

Methods: This web-based survey was conducted in 2023.

Nonsmoking after simultaneous alcohol abstinence and smoking cessation program was associated with better drinking status outcome in Japanese alcohol-dependent men: A prospective follow-up study.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that intervention for smoking cessation enhances alcohol abstinence in treatment settings for alcohol dependence. However, research in this field is rare in Asians.

Method: We prospectively investigated the association of smoking status with drinking status using 9 surveys mailed during a 12-month period in 198 Japanese alcohol-dependent men (70 never/ex-smokers and 128 smokers) who admitted for the first time and completed a 3-month inpatient program for simultaneous alcohol abstinence and smoking cessation.

[Relapse prevention program consisting of coping skills training, cue exposure treatment, and letter therapy for Japanese alcoholic men who relapsed after standard cognitive-behavioral therapy].

Coping skills training (CST) and cue exposure treatment (CET) have yielded favorable outcomes when used to treat alcoholics. We conducted 6-week inpatient programs that consisted of 9 CST group sessions (n = 117) during 2005-2009 and 9 CST group sessions plus 4 CET group sessions (n = 49) during 2009-2011 and subsequent 1-year letter therapy for Japanese alcoholic men who had relapsed and been readmitted after standard cognitive-behavioral inpatient therapy. When patients received a letter containing encouraging words every 2 weeks, they were asked to reread their CST and CET records and to respond to the letter by marking drinking days on a calendar and naming the skills on a list of the 9 CST themes and CET that were useful for maintaining abstinence during that 2-week period.

[Alcohol dependence].

The proportion of alcoholic patients aged 60 years or older is about 25% of the patients who visit medical institutions specializing in alcohol-related problems, and this rate has tended to increase gradually. Alcohol-use disorders among elderly people are frequently underdetected, but the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test-Geriatric Version (SMAST-G) is reported to be a valid screening tool for elderly people. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms among the elderly are not conspicuous since comorbidities, such as amnesic syndrome and cancer, are more common in the elderly than among younger patients.

[Clinical application of neuroimaging to alcohol-related dementia].

Alcohol-related dementia (ARD) is one of the most common dementing disorders in middle-aged people and occurs in heavy drinkers who are estimated to be 10 - 15 % of the adult men in a community. While the concept of ARD is multifactorial and includes all cognitive deficits in alcoholics, the central clinical manifestations are exemplified by Korsakoff's syndrome (KS), a persistent neuropsychiatric syndrome, characterized by amnesia and disorientation that is caused by thiamine deficiency along with excessive alcohol consumption. Antemortem detection of intracranial changes has been made possible by MRI and many studies have revealed that alcoholics have atrophic changes in frontal lobe, cerebellum, medial temporal lobe and hippocampus.