Navajo Alcohol Abuse

The article that I read this week is about the changes in patterns of alcohol use and abuse among Navajo Indians from the mid-1960s to the late 1990s.  Historically the Navajo have been widely criticized for their alcohol abuse.  The prevalence of alcohol dependence in the Navajo remains higher than in the general United States population, but remission is much more common in the Navajo people than was initially thought.  The Native American (peyote) Church has been widely credited with helping people stop alcohol use and abuse.

This study helped to shed light on the reasons why the Navajo tend to abuse alcohol. Navajo men have much higher rates of alcohol dependence than women.  The men tend to engage in heavy drinking in response to the drinking of those around them. But it has been shown that Navajo women tend to drink in response to psychiatric disorders, depression, and abuse by their partners.

This study shows an encouraging trend amongst the Navajo.  They still have a higher prevalence of alcohol abuse than the general population, but the Church and other rehabilitation programs focused on the Navajos are slowly helping to reverse this trend.