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Levels of alcohol use

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

There are four levels of alcohol use:

  • social drinking:
    • only 10% of the UK population do not drink alcohol
    • healthy drinking in defined as less than 21 units/week for men and less than 14 units/week for women

  • at risk consumption:
    • the level of drinking begins to pose a health risk

  • problem drinking:
    • drinking causes serious problems to the patient, the family, work and society in general
    • 1-2% of the population have a drink problem

  • dependence and addiction:
    • periodic or chronic intoxication
    • uncontrollable craving for drink when sober
    • tolerance to the effects of alcohol
    • psychological and/or physical dependence
    • there are 200,000 dependent drinkers in the UK

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