Alcohol Advice for the friends and family of those with alcohol problems.

It is often the case that a friend or relative of someone who is drinking heavily recognises that this has become a problem before the person themselves. Carers in this situation may need someone to talk to in confidence. DryOutNow.com provide a local bespoke service for people suffering from alcohol or other addiction-related problems in the UK.

By the time you have found this web-page, it is highly likely that you or the person you are caring for has suffered from alcohol or addiction-related problems for a long period of time.  And it is almost definitely the case that you have tried to give up yourself in the past, but have found yourself back at square one.

Free advice on helping friends or family who have alcohol problems

It can be hard to know what to do when someone you care about needs help. DryOutNow have published a useful eBook on How to motivate someone to seek help for alcoholism. This is a very useful resource for those who know people with an alcohol problem. It is available to view online or as a PDF which can be downloaded.

Read our webpages on How to Motivate Someone to Seek Help for Alcoholism.

Your own copy of How to Motivate Someone to Seek Help for Alcoholism

Alcohol Information from our Alcohol Related Articles

Ability to quit smoking may depend on ADHD symptoms, researchers find

Tobacco use is more prevalent and smoking cessation less likely among persons with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.). In a study of smokers with attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms, those who exhibited elevated hyperactivity and impulsivity, with or without inattention, showed lower quit rates after 8 weeks than those with inattention symptoms alone or those without the A.D.H.D. symptoms.

The study, now available online in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, could help smokers and physicians to better tailor cessation treatment for individuals with A.D.H.D.

"Greater understanding of the divergent associations that exist between the different kinds of A.D.H.D. have important public health consequences for smoking cessation and decreased tobacco-related mortality in this population," said the study's lead author Lirio Covey, Ph.D., professor of clinical psychology (in psychiatry) at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

"The effect of A.D.H.D. by itself on smoking cessation has rarely been examined; the effects of the individual A.D.H.D. symptoms on smoking cessation, even less so. To our knowledge, the effects of inattention or hyperactivity at baseline as separate domains of A.D.H.D. on cessation treatment outcome have never been examined," Dr. Covey reported.

During the initial, eight-week phase of a maintenance treatment study, 583 adult smokers, 43 of whom were identified with clinically significant A.D.H.D. symptom subtypes using the A.D.H.D. Current Symptom Scale, were treated with the medication buproprion (brand name Zyban®), the nicotine patch and regular cessation counseling. Compared to smokers without A.D.H.D., smokers of both A.D.H.D. subtypes combined showed lower abstinence rates throughout the study.

Breakdown of the A.D.H.D. group by subtype, however, revealed a more complicated picture. The researchers found that by the end of the treatment, the proportion of abstainers among A.D.H.D. smokers with inattention were nearly identical to those without A.D.H.D. (55 percent compared to 54 percent, respectively).

By contrast, the A.D.H.D. subgroup with hyperactivity, with or without inattention, exhibited lower quit rates throughout the treatment period compared to smokers without A.D.H.D., essentially finding that only in the presence of hyperactivity and impulsivity, were differences observed between smokers with or without A.D.H.D. symptoms.

"The knowledge gained from further study of how these early onset disorders of nicotine dependency and A.D.H.D. are related could lead to early prevention of either one or both of these conditions," concluded Dr. Covey. More research is needed to tease out why hyperactivity causes less cessation success.

The greater propensity to smoke and difficulty quitting among persons with mental illness is thought to play a role in the "hardening" phenomenon, or the increased resistance to smoking cessation among certain smokers.

Much evidence that nicotine improves attentiveness and performance deficits among persons with A.D.H.D. provides a "self-medicating" rationale for tobacco use among persons with A.D.H.D. Pre-clinical data showing that dopamine, a neurotransmitter relevant to attentional processes and impulse control, is released upon smoking, is consistent with the self-medication hypothesis.

A.D.H.D. is a neuropsychiatric condition that begins in early childhood and, in most cases, persists to adolescence and adulthood. The core symptom domains in A.D.H.D. are inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. A.D.H.D. has been sub-classified into three subtypes: predominantly inattention, predominantly hyperactivity/impulsivity, and combined inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity.

Alcohol Services Provided: DryOutNow.com provide Alcoholism Support in the UK , Local Alcoholism Counselling in the UK and Alcohol Treatment UK. Other areas that DryOutNow.com provide services in include Help for Alcoholics in Devon and Private Alcohol Clinics Devon