Australian Alcohol Effects

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What are the effects of harmful alcohol use?
The harmful alcohol use among aboriginal Australians also has significant physical, psychological and sociological effects. Excessive alcohol consumption has significant physical effects such as the development of high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, liver disease, stroke, and cardiomyopathy (insulin resistance over time) (Conigrave & Lee, 2012). The health problems related to harmful alcohol use is evident among aboriginal Australians as the National Alcohol Research Centre indicated that in 2002/2003 the rate of alcohol related hospital admissions was between two and seven times greater for aboriginal males compared to non-aboriginal males (Shakeshaft, Clifford, & Shakeshaft, 2010). Not …show more content…
Data form the National Hospital Separation supports this, as it includes that mental disorders as a result of harmful alcohol use is 4.4 (males) and 3.3 (females) times more likely among aboriginal Australians than non-aboriginal Australians (Kowanko et al., 2009). Harmful alcohol intake is also associated with severe neurological syndromes including Wernicke’s syndrome, Korsakoff’s syndrome, cerebellar degeneration, and alcoholic dementia (Lishman, 1990). In light of this, Cairney, Clough, Jaragba, and Maruff (2007) investigated the effect of alcohol on aboriginal Australians mental health. The results of their study concluded that the cognitive deficits associated with alcohol misuse were apparent in aboriginal Australians who were long-term heavy episodic alcohol …show more content…
For example, 28% of aboriginal prisoners in New South Wales (NSW) prisons were intoxicated at the time of the offence that led to their imprisonment (Butler, Levy, Dolan, & Kaldor, 2003). In addition, the results from McDonald (1992) national survey on aboriginal Australian detainment, found that 46% of police aboriginal arrests were for public drunkenness. The examples discussed, highlight that alcohol misuse is a contributing factor to aboriginal contact with the criminal justice system and raises great concern for aboriginal communities as alcohol related crime and public drunkenness for aborigines is three times the proportion among non-Aborigines (Kahn, Hunter, Heather, & Tebbutt,

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