Cause of Alcoholism

The alcohol and drug field is one which arouses passions, particularly about the cause of alcoholism and drug addiction and treatment of addiction. More than any other social or medical problem, the field is populated by recovering or ex-users. This often results in personal perspectives often taking precedence over research evidence with claims that "if you have not walked the walk, then you cannot talk the talk". This tranlates as you have not had an addiction problem then you do not have the authority or right to have an opinion on it.

There can be few, if any, other fields where personal experience is a prerequisite for and takes precedence over research and professional training. Should psychiatrists only be recruited from the ranks of the mentally ill, should males be barred from being gynacologists and should only those who have committed crimes be policemen or prison warders? If you have an opinion on the subject and want to air it please click here to go to the opinion questionnaire.

There is little agreement about what causes alcoholism and drug addiction and there are many different theories, some of which will be introduced here. The most prevalent theory, especially with the lay person, is probably the disease model which you can find discussed at the following links. The background and history of the disease model.
The main types and characteristics of disease models.
A discussion of the evidence surrounding the disease model.

A second theory, or model, of the cause of alcoholism which is the most popular with professionals, particularly medical professionals, is the alcohol dependence syndrome.