Dr. Carl Hart on alcoholism: what the evidence says · JRE #1593
SUBJECT: ALCOHOLISM
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
But to say there's this general principle where people can't drink, that's not true. That to say like there's this general principle where people can't drink that's not true that's just not there's no evidence for that no no evidence at all
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Hart claimed there is no evidence that some people cannot control their drinking. The clinical and research consensus contradicts this. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is formally defined by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as "a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences," and this loss-of-control criterion is a core diagnostic feature under DSM-5. Twin and adoption studies estimate that roughly 50 to 60 percent of AUD risk is attributable to genetic factors, indicating a heritable predisposition that affects some individuals' capacity to regulate drinking more than others. An estimated 29.5 million people in the United States met criteria for AUD as of 2022. This body of evidence does not support a blanket claim that no one has an impaired ability to control alcohol consumption; rather, decades of epidemiological, genetic, and clinical research document loss-of-control drinking as a well-characterized and measurable phenomenon in a subset of drinkers.