alcohol use disorder

noun

variants or less commonly alcohol-use disorder

plural alcohol use disorders also alcohol-use disorders

: a medical condition characterized by a pattern of frequent and usually excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, by strong cravings for alcohol often accompanied by episodes of depression, anxiety, or distress, by symptoms (such as restlessness or sweating) of alcohol withdrawal, and by the impaired ability to stop or control the intake of alcohol despite adverse effects on one's work, school, or family obligations

Note: Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe and is typically considered to encompass conditions also referred to as alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, and alcoholism.

Over the long term, teen alcohol use can interfere with normal brain development and can increase the chance that the teens will develop an alcohol use disorder later in life.

—Cindy Kurman

About 40 to 50 soldiers assigned to Fort Meade are now undergoing treatment for alcohol use disorders.

—Lisa Rhodes

An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, calls it. … Only about 15 percent of those with alcohol-use disorder are at the severe end of the spectrum. The rest fall somewhere in the mild-to-moderate range …

—Gabrielle Glaser

—abbreviation AUD

Examples of alcohol use disorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That included the records of 500,000 people with opioid use and more than 800,000 with alcohol use disorder. —Dr. Faizah Shareef, ABC News, 16 Oct. 2024

That explains why the drugs help people lose weight, but researchers believe that might also explain the drugs’ effect on people with drug and alcohol use disorders, according to Science Adviser. —Arianna Johnson, Forbes, 25 Sep. 2024

Avoid kombucha during pregnancy and lactation, and for children, those with alcohol use disorder, those with liver conditions, or those taking specific medications. —Allison Herries, Verywell Health, 18 Sep. 2024

And, people with a history of alcohol use disorder were 75 percent less likely to relapse with semaglutide. —Lisa Rapaport, EverydayHealth.com, 17 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

alcohol use disorder

noun

variants also alcohol-use disorder

: a medical condition characterized by a pattern of frequent and usually excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, by strong cravings for alcohol often accompanied by episodes of depression, anxiety, or distress, by symptoms (such as restlessness or sweating) of alcohol withdrawal, and by the impaired ability to stop or control the intake of alcohol despite adverse effects on one's work, school, or family obligations

Note: Alcohol use disorder ranges from mild to severe and is typically considered to encompass conditions also referred to as alcohol dependence, alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, and alcoholism.

Alcohol use disorder, a problematic pattern of alcohol use accompanied by clinically significant impairment or distress, is present in up to 14% of US adults during a 1-year period, although only about 8% of affected individuals are treated in an alcohol treatment facility.

—Henry R. Kranzler and Michael Soyka, The Journal of the American Medical Association

Despite physicians' awareness of the importance of screening and probing for alcohol use disorders, one problem that might explain the failure of screening to become routine could be that physicians "aren't sure what to do once they obtain a history" that suggests a problem, Dr. [Keith A.] Nichols said.

—Naseem S. Miller, Internal Medicine News

An estimated 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol-use disorder, as the DSM-5, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, calls it. … Only about 15 percent of those with alcohol-use disorder are at the severe end of the spectrum. The rest fall somewhere in the mild-to-moderate range …

—Gabrielle Glaser, The Atlantic

—abbreviation AUD