NCJ Number
191939
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 36 Issue: 11 Dated: 2001 Pages: 1443-1465
Date Published
2001
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article examines the new paradigmatic environment of natural remission studies in alcohol research.
Abstract
With a broad shift from the alcoholism paradigm to the new public health paradigm, in "alcohol science" in general and alcohol epidemiology in particular, research on natural remission has grown in scientific interest. The phenomenon itself has moved from rare and anomalous occurrence toward conventional and expected outcome for heavy drinking. A broadening conception of the problem domain properly comprehended by alcohol studies has further highlighted the apparent ubiquity of change in drinking behavior. However, this widening orbit of problematization is not fully accounted for by substantive developments in either the survey research or the Ledermann-model sources of alcohol science's paradigmatic transformation, and suggests a dialectical source of the change. The new paradigmatic environment also harbors an important shift in the moral orientation of alcohol research--from the alcoholism paradigm's focus on the rescue and protection of the alcoholic to the public health paradigm's focus on reducing alcohol-related consequences for the public. References