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Alcohol use affects, either directly or indirectly, nearly all facets of Western civi lization. Eastern cultures are also not exempt from the influence of alcohol, and the present decade has been a time of increased alcohol use in all parts of the world. The problems of alcohol abuse and alcoholism are of concern to a variety of professionals in the biomedical and psychosocial health sciences, and-although the alcohol research literature contains much information on the relationships between alcohol ingestion and physiological, neurochemical, pharmacologic, genetic, environmental, and psychological effects in humans and in subhuman spe cies-there is at the present time no advanced textbook that integrates the avail able information for use by both students and professionals. The writing of Medical and Social Aspects of Alcohol Abuse constitutes an attempt to create a scholarly reference and resource for students, researchers, prac ticing clinicians, and paraprofessionals who wish to understand the complex inter play of factors related to acute and chronic alcohol intoxication, the effects of alco hol on body functions, and treatment approaches to alcohol abusers and alcoholics.