Self-Medicating with Alcohol – More Common than You’d Think

I’ve posted quite a lot about the benefits of moderate alcohol intake on various health matters – coronary heart disease, stroke, dementia, even type 2 diabetes.  But there’s no doubt that over-indulgence has severe heath disadvantages.  These include an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, colon cancer, and chronic pancreatitis (as well as the better-known liver cirrhosis, esophageal varices, and alcoholic dementia).

A lesser known source of over-drinking is the self-medication done to help reduce pain, commonly toothache, face pain, or arthritis.  A report in the Journal of Pain describes the problem.  Telephone interviews in a Florida community revealed that the likelihood of this form of self-medication was highest in young, unmarried, white males, often in combination with prescription or over-the-counter analgesic drugs.  Surprisingly, it was the better-educated who resorted to this approach to pain control.  As many as one in 4 pain sufferers contacted utilized this method of self-treatment.

An expert in the field stated that self-reports of alcohol intake may be inaccurate.  High consumers will often attribute their intake to factors (such as pain control) that are not the true reason for drinking.  Whatever the reason, however, combining alcohol with pain killers is a dangerous recipe, and one which physicians – and  pain sufferers - should be aware of.