In this congressionally mandated study, an expert committee of the Institute of Medicine takes a close look at where treatment for people with alcohol problems seems to be headed, and provides its best advice on how to get there. Careful consideration is given to how the creative growth of treatment can best be encouraged while keeping costs within reasonable limits. Particular attention is devoted to the importance of developing therapeutic approaches that are sensitive to the special needs of the many diverse groups represented among those who have developed problems related to their use of "man's oldest friend and oldest enemy." This book is the most comprehensive examination of alcohol treatment to date.

Since the last meeting of the WHO Expert Committee on Problems Related to Alcohol Consumption WHO has undertaken a range of major initiatives to support Member States and reinforce the evidence on which policies work to develop global and regional information systems and to promote effective policies in health-care settings. These initiatives provide the background for the continuing role of WHO in supporting Member States to reduce the harm done by alcohol. In resolution WHA58.26 the Fifty-eighth World Health Assembly in 2005 requested the Director-General to report to the Sixtieth World Health Assembly on evidence-based strategies and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm including a comprehensive assessment of public-health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol and to draw up recommendations for effective policies and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm . To this end a WHO Expert Committee on Problems Related to Alcohol Consumption was convened with the main objectives of reviewing a range of public health problems attributable to alcohol consumption as well as scientific and empirical evidence of effectiveness of different policy options and providing technical recommendations on effective policies and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm.

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.