1. ¹Public Health and Regulatory Policies, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2. ²Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
3. ³Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
4. ⁴Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, Emeryville, California, USA
5. ⁵Clinical Services Research Training Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.

Correspondence: J Rehm, (jtrehm@aol.com)

Received 29 October 2007; Accepted 11 November 2007; Published online 27 February 2008.

Abstract

Alcohol policy has been shown to have an impact on the incidence and prevalence of alcohol "addiction," or alcohol use disorders (AUDs), as currently defined by the International Classification of Diseases, volume 10, or by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. We will mainly use the term "addiction" to depict a state involving loss of control over intense urges to consume alcohol, even at the expense of adverse consequences. This definition goes beyond pure "physiological dependence."¹ We will use the term AUD when referring to statistics based on the above-described definitions. In this overview we identify the pathways in the relationship between alcohol policy and addiction, present the empirical evidence, and draw conclusions. Special emphasis will be put on treatment policy.