Comparisons of alcohol and other drugs: experience from the WHO Collaborative Cross-Cultural Applicability Research...

Current psychiatric classificatory systems commonly provide similar criteria for the identification of disorders relating to the use of alcohol and other drugs. However, since cultural views of substance use disorders are influenced by prevailing norms in the society, it is unlikely that a given culture will have identical threshold for the identification of disorders relating to the use of alcohol, commonly socially approved, and those relating to the use of other mood-altering substances, commonly socially disapproved. Using data derived from the WHO nine-country Cross-Cultural Applicability Research (CAR) study, we studied the cultural views on the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Our observations suggest that, with a few notable exceptions, any use of addictive substances other than alcohol is commonly considered socially aberrant. Most cultures set a much lower threshold for the identification of disorders relating to these substances than they do for alcohol-related ones.