Behavioral Medicine – Substance Use Disorders Practice Test

Alcohol Use Disorder is defined as a medical condition in which a person has an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. This captures why it’s considered a disorder: the behavior persists and causes harm, and the person has difficulty stopping even when they want to or when it would be beneficial to do so. In practice, a diagnosis reflects patterns across multiple domains, not just how much or how often someone drinks. Criteria typically include craving, using more or for longer than intended, unsuccessful attempts to cut down, spending a lot of time obtaining, using, or recovering from alcohol, giving up important activities, continuing use despite problems, tolerance, and withdrawal. A clinician looks for a certain number of these signs within a year. Heavy use by itself and binge drinking describe amounts or patterns of drinking, but they don’t necessarily imply the persistent impairment and loss of control that define the disorder.