title: Reduction of drinking in problem drinkers and all-cause mortality.
abstract: Alcohol consumption has been linked with considerable mortality, and reduction of drinking, especially of heavy drinking, has been suggested as one of the main measures to reduce alcohol-attributable mortality. Aggregate-level studies including but not limited to natural experiments support this suggestion; however, causality cannot be established in ecological analysis. The results of individual-level cohort studies are ambiguous. On the other hand, randomized clinical trials with problem drinkers show that brief interventions leading to a reduction of average drinking also led to a reduction of all-cause mortality within 1 year. The results of these studies were pooled and a model for reduction of drinking in heavy drinkers and its consequences for all-cause mortality risk was estimated. Ceteris paribus, the higher the level of drinking, the stronger the effects of a given reduction. Implications for interventions and public health are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Social and Epidemiological Research (SER) Department, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rehm
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roerecke
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief