The Alcohol Timeline Followback Method (TLFB) is a tool developed in 1970 by Linda Carter Sobell and Mark B. Sobell used to assess an individual's alcohol intake. It evaluates an individual's daily drinking and then provides a report of an individual's drinking pattern. Along with this, it looks at the magnitude and variability of drinking. With the timeline summary, it provides a relatively accurate portrayal of one's drinking.
This assessment has been evaluated across several populations (e.g., adolescents, adults, alcohol abusers of varying severity, college students, male and female normal drinkers in the general population).
The number of days drinking assessed varies from 30 to 360 days. Also, this assessment can be completed on the computer, by an interviewer, or by pencil-and-paper. Because of the variation of days, it takes about 10 to 30 minutes to complete. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
All forms, instructions, and calendars need to use the timeline followback, including Excel worksheets for alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes (for MACs and PCs) and including foreign translations, are available as free downloads from http://www.nova.edu/gsc/online_files.html.
Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated there were 283 million people with alcohol use disorders worldwide as of 2016. The term alcoholism was first coined in 1852, but alcoholism and alcoholic are sometimes considered stigmatizing and to discourage seeking treatment, so diagnostic terms such as alcohol use disorder or alcohol dependence are often used instead in a clinical context.
Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes.
Alcohol intoxication, also known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main psychoactive component of alcoholic beverages, other physiological symptoms may arise from the activity of acetaldehyde, a metabolite of alcohol. These effects may not arise until hours after ingestion and may contribute to the condition colloquially known as a hangover. The term intoxication is commonly used when large amount of alcohol is consumed along with physical symptoms and deleterious health effects.
Educational assessment or educational evaluation is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes, aptitude and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning. Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning. Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community, a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole. The word "assessment" came into use in an educational context after the Second World War.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person who is exposed to alcohol during gestation, as a result of their mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy. The several forms of the condition are: fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS), alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), and neurobehavioral disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE). Other terms used are fetal alcohol effects (FAE), partial fetal alcohol effects (PFAE), alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD), and static encephalopathy, but these terms have fallen out of favor and are no longer considered part of the spectrum.
Sleep hygiene is a behavioral and environmental practice developed in the late 1970s as a method to help people with mild to moderate insomnia. Clinicians assess the sleep hygiene of people with insomnia and other conditions, such as depression, and offer recommendations based on the assessment. Sleep hygiene recommendations include: establishing a regular sleep schedule; using naps with care; not exercising physically or mentally too close to bedtime; limiting worry; limiting exposure to light in the hours before sleep; getting out of bed if sleep does not come; not using bed for anything but sleep and sex; avoiding alcohol as well as nicotine, caffeine, and other stimulants in the hours before bedtime; and having a peaceful, comfortable and dark sleep environment. However, as of 2021, the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of sleep hygiene is "limited and inconclusive" for the general population and for the treatment of insomnia, despite being the oldest treatment for insomnia. A systematic review by the AASM concluded that clinicians should not prescribe sleep hygiene for insomnia due to the evidence of absence of its efficacy and potential delaying of adequate treatment, recommending instead that effective therapies such as CBT-i should be preferred.
The social norms approach, or social norms marketing, is an environmental strategy gaining ground in health campaigns. While conducting research in the mid-1980s, two researchers, H.W. Perkins and A.D. Berkowitz, reported that students at a small U.S. college held exaggerated beliefs about the normal frequency and consumption habits of other students with regard to alcohol. These inflated perceptions have been found in many educational institutions, with varying populations and locations. Despite the fact that college drinking is at elevated levels, the perceived amount almost always exceeds actual behavior. The social norms approach has shown signs of countering misperceptions, however research on changes in behavior resulting from changed perceptions varies between mixed to conclusively nonexistent.
Brief intervention can often be referred to as screening and brief intervention (SBI) or, in England, identification and brief advice (IBA). Brief interventions are a technique used to initiate change for an unhealthy or risky behaviour such as smoking, lack of exercise or alcohol misuse. This page primarily describes brief interventions as applied to alcohol. As an alcohol intervention it is typically targeted to non-dependent drinkers, or drinkers who might be experiencing problems but are not seeking treatment. It is an approach which aims to prevent the acceleration or impact of alcohol problems, and/or to reduce alcohol consumption. It can be carried out in a range of settings such as in primary care, emergency or other hospital departments, criminal justice settings, workplaces, online, university/college settings, and other settings.
Emergency psychiatry is the clinical application of psychiatry in emergency settings. Conditions requiring psychiatric interventions may include attempted suicide, substance abuse, depression, psychosis, violence or other rapid changes in behavior.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) provide nutritional advice for Americans who are healthy or who are at risk for chronic disease but do not currently have chronic disease. The Guidelines are published every five years by the US Department of Agriculture, together with the US Department of Health and Human Services. Notably, the most recent ninth edition for 2020–25 includes dietary guidelines for children from birth to 23 months. In addition to the Dietary Guidelines per se, there are additional tools for assessing diet and nutrition, including the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), which can be used to assess the quality of a given selection of foods in the context of the Dietary Guidelines. Also provided are additional explanations regarding customization of the Guidelines to individual eating preferences, application of the Guidelines during pregnancy and infancy, the USDA Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review, information about the Nutrition Communicators Network and the MyPlate initiative, information from the National Academies about redesigning the process by which the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are created, and information about dietary guidelines from other nations.
Binge drinking, or heavy episodic drinking, is drinking alcoholic beverages with an intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time, but definitions vary considerably.
Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) is a dietary assessment tool delivered as a questionnaire to estimate frequency and, in some cases, portion size information about food and beverage consumption over a specified period of time, typically the past month, three months, or year. FFQs are a common dietary assessment tool used in large epidemiologic studies of nutrition and health. Examples of usage include assessment of intake of vitamins and other nutrients, assessment of the intake of toxins, and estimating the prevalence of dietary patterns such as vegetarianism.
Alcohol laws are laws relating to manufacture, use, being under the influence of and sale of alcohol or alcoholic beverages. Common alcoholic beverages include beer, wine, (hard) cider, and distilled spirits. Definition of alcoholic beverage varies internationally, e.g., the United States defines an alcoholic beverage as "any beverage in liquid form which contains not less than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume". Alcohol laws can restrict those who can produce alcohol, those who can buy it, when one can buy it, labelling and advertising, the types of alcoholic beverage that can be sold, where one can consume it, what activities are prohibited while intoxicated, and where one can buy it. In some cases, laws have even prohibited the use and sale of alcohol entirely.
The Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire (SADD) is a treatment evaluation instrument is used to measure an individual's current level of alcohol dependence. The evaluation was created by Raistrick D. S., Dunbar G., and Davidson R. J. in 1983. The evaluation is aimed at adults who have a mild to moderate dependence on alcohol and are seeking help.
Mark B. Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP, a professor at the College of Psychology of Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a specialist in addiction. Dr. Mark Sobell is nationally and internationally known for his research in the addiction field. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in Divisions 1, 3, 12, 25, 28, and 50, and is Board Certified in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. He is the co-director of Healthy Lifestyles: Guided Self-Change at Nova Southeastern University.
Linda Carter Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP, is the President's Distinguished Professor at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is a professor of clinical psychology, addiction specialist, co-director of NSU's Guided Self-Change clinic, a Motivational Interviewing Trainer, and is board-certified in cognitive and behavioral psychology.
Guided self-change (GSC) treatment has been accepted by American Psychological Association Division 12, Society of Clinical Psychology, as an empirically supported treatment.
Alcoholism in adolescence, though less common than in adults, presents a unique set of dangers due to the developing brain's vulnerability to alcohol's effects. Alcohol can cause harm and even damage to a person's DNA. "Alcohol consumption is recognized worldwide as a leading risk factor for disease, disability, and death" and is rated as the most used substance by adolescences. Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological changes, usually a time in a person life in which they go through puberty. Combining these transitional stages and the intake of alcohol can leave a number of consequences for an adolescent.
Subjective response to alcohol (SR) refers to an individual's unique experience of the pharmacological effects of alcohol and is a putative risk factor for the development of alcoholism. Subjective effects include both stimulating experiences typically occurring during the beginning of a drinking episode as breath alcohol content (BAC) rises and sedative effects, which are more prevalent later in a drinking episode as BAC wanes. The combined influence of hedonic and aversive subjective experiences over the course of a drinking session are strong predictors of alcohol consumption and drinking consequences. There is also mounting evidence for consideration of SR as an endophenotype with some studies suggesting that it accounts for a significant proportion of genetic risk for the development of alcohol use disorder.
Many students attending colleges, universities, and other higher education institutions consume alcoholic beverages. The laws and social culture around this practice vary by country and institution type, and within an institution, some students may drink heavily whereas others may not drink at all. In the United States, drinking tends to be particularly associated with fraternities.