The report focuses on research advances that have been made since the Sixth Special Report issued in 1987. The report provides data and research findings on all alcohol-related problems, including epidemiology, genetics, neurosciences, medical consequences of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, alcohol use and pregnancy, adverse social consequences of alcohol abuse and dependence, diagnostic criteria and screening instruments, prevention, intervention, and treatment. The report also provides a conceptual framework for alcohol-related research that provides working definitions of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. The report shows that steady progress continues to be made in all areas of alcohol-related research. Alcohol researchers in the basic sciences - such as the neurosciences, genetics, and molecular biology - have been able to use the latest imaging technologies in making promising advances toward identifying the biological antecedents for alcoholism. Because of researchers' increasing ability to investigate the psychosocial or environmental factors involved in the development of alcohol-related problems, the report is optimistic that the mix of environmental and genetic factors that contribute to an individual's vulnerability to alcoholism can be identified. This would provide health care professionals and others with a powerful tool for preventing alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Epidemiological research methodologies continue to be refined, so as to permit more accurate perspectives of how alcohol abuse and alcoholism impact on specific subsets of the general U.S. population. Progress also continues in treating alcohol-related medical conditions. In addition, progress has been made in developing and refining diagnostic and screening instruments to help clinicians identify and refer to treatment those of their patients with alcohol-related problems. Extensive tables, 126 references, and a subject index