[Influence of alcohol beverage vending machine on alcohol dependence syndrome]

The vending machines which sell alcohol beverages (AVM) can be found quite easily in front of shops or on the roadside in this country. Although it is easily supposed that these vending machines might have badly influenced on developing alcohol dependence syndrome, no scientific study has been reported in this regard so far. In this study, we analyzed the present status of alcoholics (n = 759) and their family members (n = 512) and of ordinary people (n = 334) in terms of their "relation" and "attitudes" to the vending machines by a questionnaire method. The results obtained show as follows: The majority of alcoholics (60%) had used AVM a couple of times or more often in a week, and 18% of alcoholics had not used AVM at all. It was found that the natures of AVM such as "machine," "long time operation," "easy accessibility," are closely related to the development of their alcohol seeking behavior, resulting in forming unfavorable drinking patterns such as concealed drinking, gulping, early morning drinking or binge drinking. Unusual patterns of using AVM were also noticed among them, such as, go to AVM before 5 a.m. and wait until it starts to work, go to a far away AVM deliberately, or, visiting AVM one after another. It was noticed that these drinking habits affected seriously not only the alcoholics but their families also. The number of the family members who insisted that AVM affected badly on the course of alcohol dependence syndrome is larger than that of alcoholics who admit the same thing. As for the future abolition of AVM, 91% of the family members, 70% of alcoholics and 39% of ordinary persons agreed with. The rate of "agreed with abolition" is higher than that of "disagreed with abolition" among ordinary persons.