Intoxication and neurology: A Dream Within a Dream. / Rus og nevrologi: A Dream Within a Dream.

The author Edgar Allan Poe is one of many artists who describe how it feels to live with major, involuntary changes of consciousness. Are the large upturns and downturns in his life attributable to a neurological conditions, or can substance use and depressive thoughts explain these fluctuations?

Alcohol-related deaths - a retrospective study from the region of northern Slovakia.

The study of cases with post mortem blood ethanol concentration of 2.00 g/kg and higher was performed at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Martin, covering the region of North Slovakia. The aim of the study was to quantify the fatal consequences of acute ethanol administration reflecting in the annual mortality range, establish the causes of death, age and gender distribution of the deceased population, place and time parameters of deaths. The analyzed period was throughout the years 1993-2012.

Alcohol and Femininity in Sweden c. 1830-1922: An Investigation of the Emergence of Separate Drinking Standards for Men and Women.

This paper discusses changing views about gender and drinking in Sweden c. 1830-1922. The author posits that the emergence of bourgeois morals in the 19th century were associated with a decline in the tolerance for female alcohol consumption, and also shows how the values, norms, and activities of the temperance movement interconnected with religion and notions of purity. Yet, in spite of hardening attitudes against women's drinking, alcohol remained integral in Swedish upper-class women's lives. The results are based on a qualitative study of Swedish women's diaries. The study was financed by the Swedish Research Council, 2009-2012. Study limitations are also noted.

[The sanitary education and propaganda in struggle with drunkenness and alcoholism in the USSR in 1920s].

The article considers the issue of sanitary education and anti-alcoholic propaganda in the USSR in 1920s and also forms and content of these activities.

Embriaguez e males da alma: entre a mania e a melancolia / Drunkenness and evils of the soul: between mania and melancholia / Embriaguez y los males del alma: entre la mania y la melancolia / L’ivresse et les maux de l’âme: entre la manie et la mélancolie

Este artigo examina as relações estabelecidas no campo da medicina da alma entre a embriaguez e os males da alma. Parte da atitude ambivalente em relação ao vinho sustentada desde a Antiguidade para mostrar como no século XVIII explicações baseadas nas dinâmicas psicofisiológicas e tratamentos que faziam apelo à ordenação da razão com a vontade para o domínio dos apetites são substituídos por uma concepção propriamente patologizante do abuso da bebida.(AU)

This article examines the relationships established in the field of medicine of the soul between drunkenness and mental illness. The article shows how the ambivalent attitude toward wine, evident since antiquity and based on psychophysiological dynamics and treatments that appeal to the power of reason and will over the appetites, was replaced during the eighteenth century by the pathologic notion of alcohol abuse.(AU)

Cet article examine les rapports établis entre l'ivresse et les maux de l'âme dans le domaine de la médecine de l'âme. Il part de l'attitude ambivalente à l'égard du vin, existante dès l'antiquité, pour montrer de quelle façon, au XVIIIe siècle, les explications basées sur la dynamique psycho-physiologique et les traitements qui faisaient appel au règlement de la raison par la volonté pour maîtriser les appétits sont remplacés par une conception qui considère l'abus de l'alcool comme pathologique.(AU)

Este artículo examina las relaciones que se establecieron en el campo de la medicina del alma entre la embriaguez y los males del alma. A partir de la actitud ambivalente en relación al vino sostenida desde la antiguedad muestra como en el siglo XVIII las explicaciones basadas en la dinámicas psicofisiológicas y en los tratamientos que apelaban para el dominio de los apetitos por la ordenación de la razón por medio de la voluntad son substituídos, de hecho, por una concepción patologizante del abuso de la bebida.(AU)

Embriaguez e males da alma: entre a mania e a melancolia / Drunkenness and evils of the soul: between mania and melancholia / Embriaguez y los males del alma: entre la mania y la melancolia / L’ivresse et les maux de l’âme: entre la manie et la mélancolie

Este artigo examina as relações estabelecidas no campo da medicina da alma entre a embriaguez e os males da alma. Parte da atitude ambivalente em relação ao vinho sustentada desde a Antiguidade para mostrar como no século XVIII explicações baseadas nas dinâmicas psicofisiológicas e tratamentos que faziam apelo à ordenação da razão com a vontade para o domínio dos apetites são substituídos por uma concepção propriamente patologizante do abuso da bebida.

This article examines the relationships established in the field of medicine of the soul between drunkenness and mental illness. The article shows how the ambivalent attitude toward wine, evident since antiquity and based on psychophysiological dynamics and treatments that appeal to the power of reason and will over the appetites, was replaced during the eighteenth century by the pathologic notion of alcohol abuse.

Cet article examine les rapports établis entre l'ivresse et les maux de l'âme dans le domaine de la médecine de l'âme. Il part de l'attitude ambivalente à l'égard du vin, existante dès l'antiquité, pour montrer de quelle façon, au XVIIIe siècle, les explications basées sur la dynamique psycho-physiologique et les traitements qui faisaient appel au règlement de la raison par la volonté pour maîtriser les appétits sont remplacés par une conception qui considère l'abus de l'alcool comme pathologique.

Este artículo examina las relaciones que se establecieron en el campo de la medicina del alma entre la embriaguez y los males del alma. A partir de la actitud ambivalente en relación al vino sostenida desde la antiguedad muestra como en el siglo XVIII las explicaciones basadas en la dinámicas psicofisiológicas y en los tratamientos que apelaban para el dominio de los apetitos por la ordenación de la razón por medio de la voluntad son substituídos, de hecho, por una concepción patologizante del abuso de la bebida.

Comparing alcohol mortality in Tsarist and contemporary Russia: is the current situation historically unique?

AIMS: This study compared the level of alcohol mortality in tsarist and contemporary Russia. METHODS: Cross-sectional and annual time-series data from 1870 to 1894, 2008 and 2009 on the mortality rate from deaths due to 'drunkenness' were compared for men in the 50 provinces of tsarist 'European Russia': an area that today corresponds with the territory occupied by the Baltic countries, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the Russian provinces to the west of the Ural Mountains. RESULTS: In 1870-1894, the male death rate from 'drunkenness' in the Russian provinces (15.9 per 100,000) was much higher than in the non-Russian provinces. However, the rate recorded in Russia in the contemporary period was even higher--23.3. CONCLUSIONS: Russia has had high levels of alcohol mortality from at least the late 19th century onwards. While a dangerous drinking pattern and spirits consumption may underpin high alcohol mortality across time, the seemingly much higher levels in the contemporary period seem to be also driven by an unprecedented level of consumption, and also possibly, surrogate alcohol use. This study highlights the urgent need to reduce the level of alcohol consumption among the population in order to reduce high levels of alcohol mortality in contemporary Russia.

Thomas Trotter's 'Essay on Drunkenness' appraised.

BACKGROUND: In 1804 Thomas Trotter, a recently retired Physician to the Fleet, published his 'Essay on Drunkenness'. This was the first ever book-length consideration of the phenomenon of alcohol dependence and its treatment. AIMS: The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of that treatise on the evolution of relevant ideas over the years that have followed. METHODS: A factual analysis of the content of the Essay is the starting-point, followed by an examination of sequential published appraisals on the significance, or lack of significance, of this work. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: To the modern reader, Trotter is likely to be seen as prescient, with his assertion that 'the habit of drunkenness is a disease of the mind', setting the scene for two centuries of debate. The literature, however, seems to suggest that Trotter did not, in fact, achieve much impact either on professional opinion or on the emergent temperance movement. It was Benjamin Rush's 1785 pamphlet on 'Ardent Spirits' which achieved iconic status. Rush and Trotter, although in some ways overlapping in their ideas, differed in other respects.

Alcohol and suicide in Russia, 1870-1894 and 1956-2005: evidence for the continuation of a harmful drinking culture across time?

OBJECTIVE: Previous research suggests that a strong relation exists between alcohol consumption and suicide in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. This study extends this analysis across a much longer historical time frame by examining the relationship between heavy drinking and suicide in tsarist and post-World War II Russia. METHOD: Using alcohol poisoning mortality data as a proxy for heavy drinking, time-series analytical modeling techniques were used to examine the strength of the alcohol-suicide relation in the provinces of European Russia in the period 1870-1894 and for Russia in 1956-2005. RESULTS: During 1870-1894, a decreasing trend was recorded in heavy drinking in Russia that contrasted with the sharp increase observed in this phenomenon in the post-World War II period. A rising trend in suicide was recorded in both study periods, although the increase was much greater in the latter period. The strength of the heavy drinking-suicide relation nevertheless remained unchanged across time, with a 10% increase in heavy drinking resulting in a 3.5% increase in suicide in tsarist Russia and a 3.8% increase in post-World War II Russia. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the innumerable societal changes that have occurred in Russia across the two study periods and the growth in the level of heavy drinking, the strength of the heavy drinking-suicide relation has remained unchanged across time. This suggests the continuation of a highly detrimental drinking culture where the heavy episodic drinking of distilled spirits (vodka) is an essential element in the alcohol-suicide association.

[History of studies of alcohol toxicology]. / Historia badan nad toksykologia alkoholu.

The early history of forensic alcohology was presented, based on writings from the beginning of the 20th century and numerous forensic medical protocols from autopsies performed in Institute of Forensic Medicine in Cracow in the 19th and 20th century. Ethanol has not been considered a poison for a long time. Suspicion of its toxic effect resulted from cases of deaths as a results of people betting who can drink more alcohol. In case of alcohol poisoning, autopsy does not show any typical changes, so the poisonings have not been recognized for many years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first chemical tests appeared. They were able to detect the presence of alcohol in tissues. A method for measuring the amount of alcohol in blood was also developed. The majority of methods were based on distillation of blood and inspection of the resultant distillate by physical methods (interferometry, colorimetry, refractometry, gravimetry, measuring thermal expansion and electrical conduction) or chemical methods using different reactions (oxidation of alcohol to acetic acid, reducing potassium dichromate by alcohol, alkylation of iodine by alcohol) and marking the amount of products of reaction by titration. Distillation of blood samples required complicated chemical devices and was very time consuming. Erik Widmark suggested a certain method in 1920, in which distillation of a blood sample took place in the same container, in which titration was performed earlier--the so-called Widmark's Flask. It allowed for distilling many samples in an incubator at the same time and dramatically shortened the time of research. Widmark's method was applied to testing drivers and people who committed crimes and was used in the whole world for many following years.

A kind of consensus on the roads? Drink driving policy in Britain 1945-1970.

The history of drink driving and legislative responses to it remain virtual terra incognita. This contribution traces developments in Britain between 1945 and the aftermath of the Road Safety Act in 1967. The first section focuses on the formation of an extra-parliamentary pressure group in the 1950s. This is complemented by an interpretation of the impact of the government-backed Drew Report (1959), and the ways in which Drew's research was rhetorically and creatively deployed by Graham Page, leading spokesman for the Pedestrians' Association and Ernest Marples, the Conservative Minister of Transport. The final section interrogates key debates leading up to the introduction of the breathalyser. The article concludes that belated introduction of road safety legislation in Britain in the 1960s revealed a high degree of cross-party consensus. Only senior officials at the Home Office, and to a lesser extent, at the Ministry of Transport, repeatedly threatened to delay reform.

The distribution of alcohol among the natives of Russian America.

The study of archival materials and published historical and ethnographic sources shows that alcohol played an insignificant role in contacts with the aboriginal population during the Russian colonization of Alaska. The Russian-American Company (RAC) tried to fight alcoholism and limited access of spirits to the natives of the Russian colonies partially for moral and partially for economic reasons. The only Alaskan natives to whom agents of the RAC supplied rum in large quantities were the Tlingit and Kaigani Haida in 1830­1842, and among them excessive drinking became a widespread problem. The chief suppliers of alcohol for these Native Americans were the British and American traders at the end of the eighteenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century traders and whalers began to supply it to the Bering Sea Eskimos as well. Russian colonization was marked by efforts to limit drunkenness in the native populations. In that sense, Russian colonization was favorable in comparison with subsequent American colonization of Alaska.

A dialogical exploration of the grey zone of health and illness: medical science, anthropology, and Plato on alcohol consumption.

This paper takes a phenomenological hermeneutic orientation to explicate and explore the notion of the grey zone of health and illness and seeks to develop the concept through an examination of the case of alcohol consumption. The grey zone is an interpretive area referring to the irremediable zone of ambiguity that haunts even the most apparently resolute discourse. This idea points to an ontological indeterminacy, in the face of which decisions have to be made with regard to the health of a person (e.g., an alcoholic), a system (e.g., the health system), or a society. The fundamental character of this notion will be developed in relation to the discourse on health and the limitations of different disciplinary practices. The case of alcohol consumption will be used to tease out the grey zone embedded in the different kinds of knowledge made available through the disciplinary traditions of medical science, with its emphasis on somatic well-being, and anthropology, with its focus on communal well-being. This tension or grey zone embedded in different knowledge outcomes will be shown to have a discursive parallel with the dialogue between the Athenian, the Spartan, and the Cretan in Plato's Laws. Making use of the dialogical approach as described by Gadamer, the Athenian's particular resolution of the tension will be explored as a case study to demonstrate the necessarily particular analysis involved in a grey zone resolution.