Elaine DeSimone remembers the fear that gripped his mother and siblings whenever her father drank. “We knew that if he had a beer in his hand, somebody was going to get it that night,” says DeSimone, who was born in New York in a family of Sicilian background. “When my dad was sober, it was

From binge drinking to brain damage, here’s what alcohol is doing to today’s youth—and why it starts earlier than you think. Alcohol consumption among minors is extremely common, making it the most frequently consumed drug among this population. However, it is not a universal habit. The problem lies in the increasing quantity and intensity of

  Addiction is affecting the family relationships, mental health and finances of most adults in the U.S., according to a new KFF poll. The findings are the latest to reveal how the worsening substance use crisis is weighing on people’s lives, regardless of whether they’re personally experiencing addiction. More than a quarter (27%) of respondents

  Federal researchers recently found that only about 20 percent of the roughly 2.5 million people with opioid use disorder had received medication treatment, a problem that especially affects Black adults, women and the unemployed. The reasons may be cultural and financial. KFF researchers published some anonymous responses from survey participants who were asked why

    A new study adds to a mounting body of evidence showing that rising alcohol consumption among women is leading to higher rates of death and disease. The report, published Friday in the journal JAMA Health Forum, examined insurance claims data from 2017 to 2021 on more than 14 million Americans ages 15 and

  It’s wine time. Beer Thirty. Happy hour. Five o’clock somewhere. Maybe it’s also time to rethink drinking? Moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for the heart, but better research methods have thrown cold water on that. “Drinking less is a great way to be healthier,” said Dr. Timothy Naimi, who directs the