Abstract

GONZALEZ MENENDEZ, Ricardo. Taxonomic criterium for the alcohol consumption patterns. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2011, vol.37, n.1. ISSN 0864-3466.

With the objective of making a draft on the taxonomy of alcohol consumption patterns for use in the national workshops of the 11^th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases, some reflections were submitted about the concept of social drinker and the non-social consumption modalities that manifest both in alcohol dependent-persons and non-dependent people. In the light of the transcendental resolution 58.26, the quantity and frequency criteria set by the WHO, as well as the quantitative reasons accounting for the higher impact of the harmful consumption of alcohol in non-dependent persons than in alcoholics were discussed. For taxonomic purposes, it was suggested that harmful consumption be excluded from the nosographic category alcoholism and be assessed as the immediate link to dependency in the patterns of drinking intake leading to this condition. Likewise, this paper underlined some consumption modalities of high social significance when they are evaluated based on quantitative and qualitative criteria. It insisted on the metaphor of frontal decapitation due to the use of hard drugs, including alcohol and marihuana, and their harmful effects on the behaviour. It finally made the proposal of paying more attention to somatic manifestations derived from sustained anxiety in relatives living with hard drug addicts, who are affected by the stress that plays the same role as the indirect smoke and behave as passive addicts whose ultimate expression is co-dependency.

Keywords : Alcohol; harmful consumption patterns; taxonomic reflections; addiction.

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