Y’all’s Google-Fu might be a lot better than mine, but my searching indicates to me that almost the entirety of the alcohol abuse research concerns the prevalence of binge drinking amongst very wealthy children at elite private schools & universities [which, when you think about the state of our pseudo-society, makes perfect sense].
As far as I can tell, there is almost NOTHING in the recent literature which would give any idea as to the prevalence of persistent intractable alcoholism amongst the lower classes, the poor, or the destitute [such as the homeless].
[But again, y’all’s Google-Fu might be significantly better than mine.]
However, I did find one study, from circa 2009 to 2011, using self-reported instances of alcohol dependence, according to the old DSM-4 definitions [which were superceded by the new DSM-5 definitions in 2013]:
If we take [circa 2019] demographic numbers for Pennsylvania, and multiply them against those [circa 2009-2011] Alcohol-dependence percentages for the entire United States, then we get a tally which looks like:
ASIAN: (349,088 total) X (1.4% ETOH dependent) = 4,887 ETOH dependent
WHITE: (10,406,288 total) X (3.4% ETOH dependent) = 353,814 ETOH dependent
BLACK: (1,377,689 total) X (3.7% ETOH dependent) = 50,974 ETOH dependent
HISPANIC: (719,660 total) X (4.0% ETOH dependent) = 28,786 ETOH dependent
TWO OR MORE RACES: (237,835 total) X (4.1% ETOH dependent) = 9,751 ETOH dependent
AMERINDIAN/ALASKAN: (26,843 + 235 total) X (9% ETOH dependent) = 2,437 ETOH dependent
GRAND SUB-TOTAL, STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA: 450,649 ETOH dependent
So you’d be just shy of half a million [self-reported] cases of DSM-4 ETOH dependence in the state of Pennsylvania.
And even if only the very worst ten percent of those with [self-reported] ETOH dependence were in danger of going into Delirium Tremens s/p ETOH withdrawal, you’d be looking at more than 45,000 patients.
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