Glenn Reynolds – THIS IS SO WEIRD AFTER EIGHT YEARS OF HOPE AND CHANGE: One in eight American adults is an alcoholic, study says. “I think the increases are due to stress and despair and the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism.”

Indeed, the study’s findings are bolstered by the fact that deaths from a number of these conditions, particularly alcohol-related cirrhosis and hypertension, have risen concurrently over the study period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 88,000 people a year die of alcohol-related causes, more than twice the annual death toll of opiate overdose.

I was curious if the definition of alcoholism had changed. That doesn’t seem to be the case. The definitions of both alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are described in the article and seem more than reasonable.

Frankly, the results are frightening.