Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about alcohol dependence.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash alcohol dependence or in the

psychiatry section of the zero to finals more medicine book and you can find questions to train

your knowledge on this content and help you remember the information for longer at members.0.0.

0.com. So let's get straight into it.

Alcohol dependence involves daily alcohol consumption, strong urges and cravings for alcohol,

difficulty controlling consumption, tolerance to the effects of alcohol, and withdrawal symptoms when stopping.

Let's talk about the mechanism of action of alcohol and alcohol dependence.

Alcohol is a depressant. It stimulates GABA receptors which have a relaxing effect on the brain. It also

inhibits glutamate receptors, which are also known as NMDA receptors, which causes a further

relaxing effect on the electrical activity of the brain. Glutamate is an excitory neurotransmitter and

alcohol inhibits its effects. Long-term alcohol use results in the GABA system becoming down-regulated

and the glutamate system becoming upregulated to balance the effects of all the alcohol.

The person must continue drinking alcohol or they will experience unpleasant, uncomfortable and

potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

Let's talk about calculating alcohol units.

The formula for calculating the units of alcohol in a drink is the volume of the drink in

millilitres times the alcohol content or percentage divided by a thousand equals the units of alcohol.

A tom tip for you, calculating alcohol units is a very common exam question.

The simplest way is to multiply the volume in liters by the percentage.

For example, for 750 milliliters of 12% wine, the calculation is 0.75 litres times 12% equals 9 units.

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