When is it alcohol use disorder? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Alcohol use disorder or AUD is characterized by someone’s compulsion to use alcohol, an inability to control that use and stop using alcohol even when it is causing problems in their life. Denis Antoine, an AUD expert at Johns Hopkins, says estimates are that several million people in the US have the condition.

Antoine: It can be problems with doing the normal functions of your day-to-day job or maintaining a relationship or getting out of bed with the physical issues that can occur, but to the point where it causes as we say in our diagnostic manuals social dysfunction or difficulty functioning the way you would on a regular basis socially. That's when you call it a disorder so there isn't a cut off with the amount of drinks necessarily but it's how it affects your day-to-day life.  :25

The term alcohol use disorder encompasses conditions that may be called alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, or the commonly used term alcoholism. Antoine says AUD is considered a brain disorder and should include behavioral strategies to help people manage it. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.