Italian Guidelines for the treatment of alcohol dependence

The European Union is the heaviest-drinking region in the world, with the highest proportion of total diseases and premature deaths due to alcohol. In Italy, this phenomenon involves about the 13% of the population over 18 years and more than the 25% of the patients admitted to the Italian Hospitals. Unfortunately, only the 5% of these admitted patients are recognized as people affected by Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Insufficient knowledge, lack of access to care and the few resources available in the management of the problem are major causes of delays in the diagnosis, finally contributing to significant clinical consequences much harder and costly to handle. In view of the above considerations, this special issue of the Rivista di Psichiatria is dedicated to a series of articles concerning the Italian Guidelines for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Developed in collaboration with many experts and esteemed scientific societies such as the Referral Center for Alcoholism of the Lazio Region (CRARL), the Italian Society of Drug Addiction (SITD), the Italian Society for the Treatment of Alcoholism and its Complications (SITAC), the Italian Society of Psychiatry and Dependence (SIPDip) the Italian Society of Dependency Diseases (SIPaD) and the Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology of the National Research Council (IBCN-CNR), these Guidelines provide to the operators evidenced-based statements aimed at increasing the knowledge and the appropriate use of medications for people affected by AUD. With the possibility of a dynamic updating, the overall goal of these Guidelines will be to guarantee the homogeneity of treatments and a qualitative improvement in the assistance of patients with AUD, thus reducing the significant psychosocial and public health consequences related to this important psychiatric condition.