FRANÇAIS :
La recherche a permis de mieux décrire la richesse et la diversité culturelle des comportements d'alcoolisation à travers le monde et de définir les relations qui existent entre les modes de consommation et leurs conséquences. Ces données abondantes offrent de nouvelles approches à la politique et à la prévention en matière d'alcool, en permettant de réduire les méfaits chez les individus particulièrement à risque.
ENGLISH:
An important paradigm shift has occurred in the alcohol field since this quote was written. Population-wide measures of alcohol consumption have given way to greater focus on drinking patterns that describe particular drinking behaviors and settings, and the individuals who engage in them. In 1998, the International Center for Alcohol Policies published "Drinking Patterns and Their Consequences". The book laid out supporting evidence for what was then a relatively novel concept - that when it comes to outcomes, both positive and negative, how people drink is at least as important as how much they drink. Since then, the patterns approach has gradually become an orthodox concept in the field, applied not only to alcohol research, but increasingly to prevention and policy development. This issue of ICAP Reports revisits drinking patterns five years after the publication of the book. The report attempts to provide a brief overview of the field and of the trends that have emerged, both in alcohol research and in policy applications. Due to the breadth of available research, this report is by no means comprehensive. Its purpose is to offer a glimpse of how the patterns approach has exposed the richness of drinking behaviors the world over and how theory is being translated into practice. The discussion below is largely based on a review of publications on drinking patterns cited in ETOH, the research database of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, covering the period from 1998 to 2003. (Editor' s abstract)