Stages and degrees of alcoholism: the main manifestations, consequences and therapy of alcohol dependence

Alcoholism has long been considered a problem in Russia. Drinking strong drinks has turned into drunkenness, people are dependent on alcohol, and some for too much the bottle is ready to give everything that they have - family, job, position in society, and most importantly - health and even a life. Addiction to ethanol-containing drinks is spreading at an unprecedented rate.

Almost every day every person encounters people who can be used to study the stages of alcoholism. According to the World Health Organization, presented for 2012, the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the country reached more than 16 liters per capita. At that time, Russia ranked fifth in the table with the list of all countries in the world, we were overtaken by Moldova, Hungary, Uganda and the Czech Republic.

Today, there are almost two thousand alcoholics per 100,000 people. The statistics of alcohol consumption among adolescents is frightening. The situation has improved somewhat in recent years.

Experts believe that this happened due to an increase in the well-being of the population, the appearance of conditions for appropriate physical development. Nevertheless, the problem of excessive consumption of ethanol-containing drinks is still relevant. According to medical reference books that detail the stages of alcoholism, this chronic disease is the most a common form of substance abuse, which manifests itself in the form of physical and mental dependence on the regular use of alcohol drinks.

Pathology is accompanied by characteristic changes in the emotional state, disturbances in the work of internal organs and the psyche. The disease does not develop immediately. Some have been drinking alcohol for years, thinking that they can refuse them at any time, but in fact, even addiction to alcohol "only on weekends" and "only five drops each" narcologists also consider pathological affection.

The problem is relevant for both women and men. Experts have noticed that children in a family where parents suffer from chronic drunkenness are more likely to become victims of addiction. Psychologists associate this fact with the formation of the wrong way of behavior from an early age. Rapid addiction to alcoholic beverages develops due to the effect of ethanol on the nervous system. After the absorption of alcohol into the blood, a state of emotional excitement and euphoria quickly sets in. Problems recede, the person feels confident and relaxed.

They want to stay in such a state more and more often, and patients do not notice that in order to achieve relaxation they need an increasing amount of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol over time causes destructive processes in the nerve cells, as a result of which changes in the mental state become irreversible. Mostly ethanol is excreted through the liver, therefore, regardless of the stage of alcoholism, this organ suffers in the first place. Then the pathology affects the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, and the brain.

Due to the deficiency of vitamins and minerals, the condition of the skin, hair, nails worsens. Such changes are accompanied by progressive social degradation. In total, there are three stages of alcoholism, although some narcologists, depending on the general symptoms, changes in the physiological and mental state of the patient describe the fourth degree diseases. At the initial stage, the symptoms of pathology are reversible. A person is drawn to alcohol, the consumption of strong drinks goes beyond the usual rest at the end of the week.

Signs of addiction to alcohol are not very pronounced, and according to experts, you can do without drug treatment. The most striking symptom of the second stage is the desire to get drunk. Moreover, after repeated intake of alcohol, the state of health and mood improves, and often the "holiday" continues. As a rule, even if one wants to quit the constant consumption of alcohol, a person cannot do it without help. At the third stage, violations of the physiology of internal organs become irreversible.

Acquaintances from the previous life are replaced by new "friends" with the same addiction to alcohol. At this stage, even with the rejection of drunkenness, the full functioning of the organs is impossible. The fourth stage is characterized by fatal damage to the liver and cardiovascular system.

The person is inadequate, often suffers from memory lapses, and neglects hygiene. As a rule, the disease at this stage ends in death. When the first signs of alcoholism appear, family involvement and support is essential. In addition, now doctors offer many different ways that can cope with the disease in the second or even third stage of alcoholism. It is enough to contact a specialized clinic, and the doctor will help you choose the method of treatment and explain the principle of therapy with the help of video and photos.

Alcohol addiction: how to determine the stage of the disease, symptoms and consequences of alcoholism

To independently determine the stage of addiction to alcohol, it is not necessary to visit a doctor.

There are no laboratory tests that can answer this question.

Moreover, the doctor prescribes studies to assess the condition of the internal organs after prolonged exposure to alcoholic beverages.

In a clinic that promises to remove alcohol dependence, a qualified psychologist can assess the patient's condition.

But to draw a conclusion about how far the disease has gone, one can pay attention to the symptoms characteristic of each stage of the pathology. In addition to the generally accepted classification of alcoholism, there is another system proposed by E.E. Bekhtel, a famous Russian psychiatrist, author of more than 80 works on the topic of drunkenness and addiction. But many experts consider such a classification to be insufficiently informative and does not reflect the general changes taking place in the human body.

So, in accordance with the Bechtel taxonomy, the following categories of patients are distinguished:

• Abstainers who consume alcohol no more than 2-3 times a year (that is, only on holidays), and the total volume of alcohol consumed does not exceed 200 ml.
• Accidental drinkers. To this category E.E. Bechtel takes people drinking a little, but several times a month in a large company. The amount of alcohol consumed does not exceed 200 g in one evening.
• Moderate drinkers. At this stage, patients already have a craving for alcoholic beverages. As a rule, this is timed to the end of the working week and 300-400 ml of alcohol is drunk.
• Systematic users. A person is constantly looking for a reason to "note" something, drinks alcohol up to 4 times a week, 200-300 ml.
• Drinkers habitually. Alcohol dependence syndrome gradually becomes uncontrollable, the patient may drink rarely (no more than 2 times a week), but the volume of alcohol consumed increases to 500-600 ml per evening.

Most doctors prefer the "classic" division of alcoholism into several stages. Like other pathologies, this disease begins with the so-called prodromal period, when a person is quite capable of realizing an aggravated addiction and independently breaking the vicious circle of alcohol dependencies.

During this period, you can safely refuse the proposed glass or set it aside, only slightly sipping. A person completely controls his state and stops when he realizes that he is losing control over himself. A distinctive feature of the prodromal period is vomiting with excessive alcohol consumption and prolonged disgust after a state of intoxication.

The first stage

A sign of the first stage, from which alcohol dependence begins, is an emotionally excited state in anticipation of a feast. Moreover, it is not the meeting with friends and the joy of communication that causes positive thoughts, but the use of alcoholic beverages.

The previous amount of alcohol is no longer enough to achieve a state of intoxication. Some begin to take pride in such a feature of the body, but such symptoms are a "bell" that it is time take measures to stop the progression of alcoholism (narcologists also call this disease ethicism).

Memories of an evening spent drinking a glass cause an emotional uplift, a person seeks to return to the same state. Forced abstinence from alcohol is accompanied by bouts of irritability, and later - aggression. A person begins to look for any excuse for a feast.

Moreover, regardless of the volume of alcohol consumed, the gag reflex, characteristic of the prodromal stage, is absent. At this stage, doctors do not notice pathological disturbances in the work of internal organs, but sometimes they are able to severe intoxication, memory lapses may occur when a person is unable to control his behavior.

The duration of the initial stage depends on the willpower of the person and on the willingness of loved ones to provide help and support. At this stage, it is possible to completely and without complications forget what alcohol dependence is. Otherwise, after 5 years (in women, degradation takes no more than 2 years), the patient's condition worsens.

Second stage

A distinctive symptom of the second stage is withdrawal symptoms. This is the name of the pathological craving for alcohol, which requires a constant increase in the amount of alcohol. In its absence, a person cannot cope with bouts of uncontrolled aggression and anger up to the development delirium tremens.

He is tormented by tremors of the fingers, severe sweating, pallor, nausea, tachycardia. Mental activity is impaired, all attention is concentrated only on alcohol. Over time, this state and the constant desire to get drunk leads to regular binges, lasting several days.

During this period, the patient completely loses touch with reality, the behavior becomes inadequate. To get a person out of this state, the help of a specialist is often required. Between binges, he can lead a completely normal life, with the exception of the constant desire to drink. Chronic alcohol dependence syndrome in the second stage is accompanied by organ pathologies. Ethanol breakdown products are toxic to the liver, causing irreversible death of its cells and their gradual replacement by fibrous tissue.

Naturally, toxic compounds gradually accumulate, affecting the work of all internal organs. Under the influence of alcohol, the nerve cells of the brain undergo necrotic changes, which affects the behavior and mental abilities of the patient. The second stage of alcoholism can last for years (sometimes up to 20-25 years).

It all depends on the volume of alcohol consumed. But as a rule, a person needs more and more alcohol to achieve the usual state of euphoria. Therefore, the disease often progresses. There are irreversible changes in the brain that cannot be corrected by any modern methods of treatment.

Third and fourth stages

Binges last much longer. If at the second stage the patient regained consciousness after 3-4 days, now this period lasts for weeks. The body's susceptibility to alcohol increases. For intoxication, a minimum dose of alcohol is enough, and a person pays attention to its quality in the last place.

The patient's condition is constantly deteriorating due to progressive renal, heart and liver failure, serious disorders of the central nervous system.

These diseases are aggravated by permanent alcohol intoxication. Due to constant rudeness, rudeness and aggression at the final stages of alcoholism, relatives and friends turn away from a person.

Even with a complete rejection of alcohol, which happens extremely rarely at the third stage, pathological changes in the internal organs are irreversible, and life expectancy is sharply reduced. Often, patients are forced to constantly take medications and maintain the activity of the liver and kidneys with the help of special medical equipment. The fourth stage inevitably ends in death.

The person is constantly drunk, the internal organs are severely affected, the gastrointestinal tract is simply not in able to digest food, the heart cannot cope with the load, the nervous system practically does not working. The patient sees hallucinations most of the time. It is impossible to help the patient, therefore, at the last stage, alcohol dependence leads to the death of a person from multiple organ failure and intoxication.

Alcohol dependence: methods of treatment and prevention

The main principles of drug treatment for alcoholism are:

• elimination of toxic products of ethanol metabolism from the body;
• normalization of the work of internal organs with the help of enhanced vitamin therapy;
• elimination of withdrawal symptoms;
• prevention of new alcoholic excesses, at this stage, drug therapy is complemented by the work of a psychologist.

To relieve the symptoms of alcohol intoxication, it is necessary to purify the blood from the end products of the metabolism of ethanol. For this, hemosorption, plasmapheresis, intravenous infusion of plasma-substituting solutions (isotonic sodium chloride solution, glucose) are used. This is necessary, since prolonged intoxication is accompanied by dehydration and impaired water-salt metabolism.

Often, infusions are carried out using adsorbents that bind toxins and promote their early elimination from the body. These are Unithiol, Magnesia, Gemodez, Sodium thiosulfate solution. Additionally, the patient is injected with an increased dose of B vitamins to normalize the nervous system, ascorbic acid and vitamin PP, which help restore vascular and heart tone.

With severe withdrawal symptoms, treatment is carried out in a hospital setting with the appointment of potent psychotropic drugs (for example, Haloperidol). In less severe cases, Phenazepam, Grandaxin or Diazepam are dispensed with. These medicines have an anticonvulsant, sedative, anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effect. In addition, medications can stop attacks of alcoholic delirium. According to the WHO, at least half of patients return to drinking alcohol within a year after treatment.

To remove addiction to alcoholism, doctors recommend several medications, these are:

• Disulfiramthat impairs alcohol tolerance;
• Acamprosate, reduces cravings and causes aversion to alcohol, especially effective on the initial degree of alcoholism, it should be used immediately after the end of the detoxification course therapy;
• Naltrexone blocks opioid receptors, resulting in ethanol intolerance, the drug is suitable for short-term treatment;
• Nalmefen is a relatively new drug, similar in principle to Naltrexone, but more suitable for long-term therapy (up to six months).

Scientists have long established that alcohol dependence is directly related to lifestyle. Therefore, the measures for the prevention of such a disease include sports, the presence of hobbies and hobbies, interesting work that can replace the craving for alcohol. But when the first symptoms of addiction appear, you should not close your eyes to the problem, but seek help from specialists.