Phil Davies – författare

The nature of alcohol problems is very diverse and the strategies adopted for minimising these vary even more. Thinking in the study of alcohol problems in the 1970s and early 1980s had focused on the public health perspective, seeking not only to lessen alcohol problems by controlling the availability of alcohol, but also to promote moderate drinking practices and to preserve the positive advantages of alcohol use.

Originally published in 1983, a detailed review of public health issues in this field at the time opens the book. This is followed by an examination of alcohol-related problems and policies for their control in sixteen different European countries. The chapters on individual countries provide a source of information and data on alcohol policies, consumption and problems with which it is possible to examine from a cross-cultural and comparative basis the claims of a public health perspective. The final chapter draws together the cross-national data and discusses their implications for a public health response to alcohol problems. This book should now be a historical reference source for all interested in health policy in general and alcohol problems in particular.

The nature of alcohol problems is very diverse and the strategies adopted for minimising these vary even more. Thinking in the study of alcohol problems in the 1970s and early 1980s had focused on the public health perspective, seeking not only to lessen alcohol problems by controlling the availability of alcohol, but also to promote moderate drinking practices and to preserve the positive advantages of alcohol use.

Originally published in 1983, a detailed review of public health issues in this field at the time opens the book. This is followed by an examination of alcohol-related problems and policies for their control in sixteen different European countries. The chapters on individual countries provide a source of information and data on alcohol policies, consumption and problems with which it is possible to examine from a cross-cultural and comparative basis the claims of a public health perspective. The final chapter draws together the cross-national data and discusses their implications for a public health response to alcohol problems. This book should now be a historical reference source for all interested in health policy in general and alcohol problems in particular.

In the 1980s the study of alcoholism was in a period of rapid change, this book, originally published in 1985, identifies and explores the three most controversial contemporary issues: changes at the basic explanatory level in our concept of harmful drinking; the undermining of our confidence that drinking behaviour can be effectively modified in the traditional context of ‘treatment’; and the changes in our concept of the effective prevention of harmful drinking.

The authors of the book came from a variety of backgrounds, but all were members of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group. They broadly reject the disease concept of alcoholism, but, as this volume shows, there is still scope for vigorous debate and this book should have something of interest for all concerned with problems of alcoholism.

In the 1980s the study of alcoholism was in a period of rapid change, this book, originally published in 1985, identifies and explores the three most controversial contemporary issues: changes at the basic explanatory level in our concept of harmful drinking; the undermining of our confidence that drinking behaviour can be effectively modified in the traditional context of ‘treatment’; and the changes in our concept of the effective prevention of harmful drinking.

The authors of the book came from a variety of backgrounds, but all were members of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group. They broadly reject the disease concept of alcoholism, but, as this volume shows, there is still scope for vigorous debate and this book should have something of interest for all concerned with problems of alcoholism.