Alcohol misuse can lead to alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), a form of liver disease with a high short-term mortality rate in severe cases. Currently, no medications have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat AH, and liver transplantation is often required due to liver failure. A better understanding of how AH develops … Read more
Drinking too much—whether on a single occasion or over many years—can take a serious toll on an individual’s health. Clinicians across the health care spectrum can play important roles in preventing and treating the harmful effects of alcohol. This role is particularly important among providers who manage patients with liver diseases. Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) … Read more
Recently researchers at NIAAA used the national death certificate database to assess changes in alcohol-related deaths during the first year of the pandemic. The results, published in JAMA, show that after increasing around 2.2% per year over the previous two decades, deaths involving alcohol jumped 25.5% between 2019 to 2020, totaling 99,107 deaths.1 The study showed … Read more
Early alcohol rehabilitation can reduce the risk of hospital readmission, alcohol relapse, and mortality among patients hospitalized for alcoholic hepatitis (AH), according to a recent National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) supported study. AH is a potentially life-threatening alcohol-associated liver disease; many patients who are hospitalized with severe cases of AH die within … Read more
NIH-funded study in mice merits further investigation as a potential treatment A specific strain of a common bacteria found in most people with alcoholic hepatitis correlates with greater liver disease severity and mortality, according to a new study published in Nature. Alcoholic hepatitis is a serious form of alcohol-associated liver disease, and people with it … Read more
In 2015, Princeton University economists Anne Case, Ph.D., and Angus Deaton, Ph.D., reported something unexpected. After decreasing since the end of World War II, rates of death began to increase in the United States for people in some groups. The rise in deaths was driven primarily by drug and alcohol overdoses, suicides, and liver disease. … Read more