Think Russia is the only country with a drinking problem that affects its kids? Think again.

A new study estimates that almost one American in three--30.3% to be exact--has a problem with alcohol at some time in their lives. Of that group, 17.8% say they abuse alcohol and 12.5% say they have problems because of alcohol dependence. And most of these problems go untreated.

The study, which is published in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, was an enormous undertaking. Researchers including Columbia University Medical Center's Dr Deborah Hasin and Bridget Grant of the Division of Biometry and Epidemiology at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, analyzed data from face to face interviews of over 43,000 adults that had been conducted in 2001 and 2002.

Alcohol abuse was found to be greatest among men and Native Americans, and among those ages 30 to 60. Asians, Hispanics and blacks had a lower rate of alcohol problems that whites. (One of the points I tried to make in my recent post about Russian men, drinking and dying was that men's alcohol abuse has as much of an impact on the socio-economic development of their children as the actual maternal drinking that leads to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its related disorders.)

I think the saddest thing about this study is that it shows that, even though the United States is a far more developed country than Russia and has a longer history of promoting awareness of alcohol abuse problems, Americans remain very reticent to seek treatment.

The researchers said that only 24.1% of those who reported alcohol dependence at some point in life had ever been treated. When the researchers focused on the 12 months before the interview had been conducted, they found that only 12.1% of those who said they had alcohol dependence during that period had sought treatment. More depressing, for me, was that the researchers found that, when the people they studied did seek treatment, it was eight years after the onset of their alcohol problem and that treatment rates were slightly lower than research had found 10 years ago.

You can read an excerpt of the study here. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism maintains a comprehensive Web site, which includes a section on FAS in America.