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NEUROSCIENCE OF PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCE USE AND DEPENDENCE

aggressively by transnational corporations that target young people in
advertising and promotion campaigns. According to the Global status report
on alcohol (WHO, 1999) and as shown in Fig. 1.1 below, the level of
consumption of alcohol has declined in the past twenty years in developed
countries but is increasing in developing countries, especially in the Western
Pacific Region where the annual per capita consumption among adults ranges
from 5 to 9 litres of pure alcohol, and also in countries of the former Soviet
Union (WHO, 1999). To a great extent the rise in the rate of alcohol
consumption in developing countries is driven by rates in Asian countries.
The level of consumption of alcohol is much lower in the African, Eastern
Mediterranean, and South-East Asia Regions.
There is a long tradition of research on the epidemiology of alcohol use in
developed countries and we have learnt much about the distribution and
determinants of drinking in different populations. For many years,
researchers focused on average volume of alcohol consumption in
determining the level of drinking in a particular country. Using production
or sales data from official records has tended to underestimate consumption,
especially in developing countries, where unrecorded consumption of locally
brewed beverages is significant. In order to improve the measurement of per

Fig. 1.1 Annual per capita alcohol consumption among adults aged
15 years or more
y
7
Annual per capita alcohol consumption (litres) 5
6

4

3

2

1

0
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year
Developed countries
Developing countries
Former Soviet Union Source: Room et al., 2002

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Chapter_1 6 19.1.2004, 11:22