INTRODUCTION:

Dipsomania (Binge drinking) is an uncontrollable craving for alcohol, where the client has the habit of periodic, compulsive bouts of alcohol intake.

Dipsomania is a crisis lasting from one day to two weeks, and consisted of a rapid and huge ingestion of alcohol with loss of all other interests, and these crises recurred at indeterminate intervals, separated by periods when the subject was generally sober.

INCIDENCE:

· More common in males..

· One third of the adolescent has binge drinking.

CAUSES

· Common among those who pay less morale and spiritual value.

· Teens with peer pressure get large amount of pocket money

· Sensation and novelty seeking

· Negative environmental factors like broken family, poor role model and abusive parents.

BEHAVIOUR AND PROBLEMS OF PERSON WITH DIPSOMANIA:

· Accident prone and violent behavior.

· Neglect of obligations, assaultive and aggressive

· Unprotected pregnancies and HIV infection

· Impaired impulse control

· Black outs

· Neurocognitive deficits such as impaired working memory, delayed auditory, verbal memory deficits impaired working memory, spatial working memory and pattern recognition tasks.

· Binge drinking during pregnancy lead to fetal alcoholic syndrome, mental retardation, facial malformations and bodily dysfunctions.

· Stroke, myocardial infarction

PREVENTION OF DIPSOMANIA:

· Attention to the drinking habit.

· Raising the legal age of drinking

· Early detection and treatment of alcoholism

· Motivational counseling for abstinence

· Cognitive behavior therapy

REFERENCES:

1. Dearborn, George, V. N., “The journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.,” Vol. 21(4), pp 451-452

2. http://www.search.com/Dipsomania

3. Bucknil, Daniel., H.T., (1987), A Manual of Psychosocial Medicine.

Received on 20.07.2011 Modified on 12.10.2011

Asian J. Nur. Edu. and Research 1(3): July-Sept. 2011; Page 98