Alcoholism in North America, Europe, and Asia [Hardcover]

John E. Helzer (Editor), Glorisa J. Canino (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1992

This volume represents a landmark in the important and rapidly expanding literature of cross-cultural epidemiology that has been made possible by the worldwide popularity of the DSM-III and the multi-national use of a single survey instrument: the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). Reviewing population survey findings across ten regions of North America, Europe, and Asia, this study is the first direct cross-national comparison of personal interview data on alcoholism, including prevalence rates and risk factors. The book carefully describes the background of the various surveys and the methods of analysis and comparison. Chapters on each region describe the prevalence of drinking problems, the symptomatic expression of alcoholism in that culture, aspects of the cultural background that are relevant to drinking behavior, and the association between alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders. Of particular importance in this volume is the inclusion of a chapter on alcoholism in the Socialist Republic of China, from which very little scientific information has been readily available. The inclusion of eastern and western cultural perspectives offers insight into both universal and culturally distinct aspects of alcoholism. The volume is essential reading for psychiatrists, epidemiologists, sociologists, and alcohol theorists, researchers and clinicians.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book under review is a report of epidemiology studies of alcoholism of breadth and magnitude beyond anything previously attained. The text discusses the limitations and reliability of the resulting data consequent on local adaptation of the assessment process, and presents results that show both remarkable consistency and surprising differences in cross-national results. Further refinements in the methods, the instruments, and their local adaptation are in order, but this trailblazing work represents the first fruit of progress to date." --Readings

"This book summarizes important cross-cultural research and is an important contribution to alcohol studies. It will certainly be used by those who work in this field. . . . it could be a valuable resource for anyone with academic and administrative responsibilities in the mental health and substance abuse arenas." --Hepatology

"The editors and contributors have produced a richly informative book full of surprises and intelligent speculation." --American Journal of Psychiatry

"The principal importance of this volume lies in its thorough and informed description of the development and subsequent application of a cost-effective survey methodology that allowed the accumulation of reliable data on psychiatric signs and symptoms from a large number of cross-national general population and patient samples. . . this ground-breaking methodology has played a central role in the extensive field trials preceding publication of DSM-IV." --Contemporary Psychology

"A remarkable cross-cultural investigation into the phenomenology of alcoholism. . . . an extremely cohesive, tightly written volume which allows the reader to easily compare findings between sites. . . . the authors have contributed substantially to our understanding of this process. . . . a very significant contribution to cross-cultural psychiatry in general as well as to the study of alcoholism in particular." --The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

"Contains an excellent collection of papers on the phenomenology and prevalence of alcoholism in a variety of cultural groups....Overall, the enormous amount of data contained in each chapter should prove to be a valuable resource for both researchers and policy makers alike....The editors of the volume have done a good job ensuring that there are similar presentation, analyses, and discussion of the data in each chapter. This allows the reader to readily make comparisons among the different study populations of demographic characteristics, drinking patterns, risk factors, rates of comorbid psychopathology, lifetime rates of alcohol abuse and dependence, as well as the incidence of individual dependence symptoms....Is a valuable addition to cross-cultural work on alcoholism..." --Kathyrn Gill, Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review

"A remarkable tour-de-force....The editors have done a magnificent job of coordinating the far-flung studies and producing a clear and coherent exposition....The several reports on various regions are uniformly so clearly written and well organized as to be understandable even by someone unfamiliar with the field, and the outcomes of sophisticated statistical procedures are arrayed in easily comprehensible tables....Ambitious, well-done, and remarkably thorough..." --Journal of Studies on Alcohol

"Well edited and integrated....This volume deserves a wide readership both among professional and lay audiences."--Addiction

About the Author

John E. Helzer is at University of Vermont. Glorisa J. Canino is at University of Puerto Rico.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (May 7, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195050908
• ISBN-13: 978-0195050905
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,885,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)