Doctor says alcohol addiction is medical condition

Salisbury, Md. – WMDT spoke with Executive Director of the Institute of Addiction Medicine Dr. Joseph Volpecelli, who says there are several misunderstandings about Alcohol Use Disorder.

He said AUD is not about willpower alone, it’s also a medical condition. One that can be diagnosed through routine screenings. However, according to the Institute of Addiction Medicine, only half of those diagnosed with AUD are only diagnosed after a crisis.

“There’s still too much shame around addiction right now that people feel shame, that they should be able to control their drinking,” Volpecelli said, adding doctors as well as patients can be reluctant to bring up the issue. He said patients can be uncomfortable admitting to people they have a problem and “sometimes doctors don’t want to what they believe is upset patients by bringing up the issue.”

“And so we need to get shame off the table all together and look at it as the medical condition that it is,” he said.

He also said there are medications available to treat AUD such as such as naltrexone, which helps reduce alcohol cravings. He said there is some stigma against using medication and treating AUD as a medical because it “can be seen as cheating.'” However, Dr. Volpecelli stressed that medical treatment still needs to be coupled with counseling in order to be effective.

He said use of nonaddictive medications like naltrexone used to help mitigate cravings are sometimes misconstrued as being used as “trading one substance for another” but in reality is used to physically help stop drinking. He said there is still work that has to happen at the psychological level to properly treat AUD.

Those struggling with alcohol or substance addiction can reach out to the national hotline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).