Why We Don't Know More about the Social Benefits of Moderate Drinking

The scientific literature about drinking shows that a preoccupation with the harms that occasionally befall those who drink too much or too fast is coupled with a virtual ignorance (in both senses of that term) about the benefits that more often accrue to the vast majority who are moderate drinkers. It is ironic that reviews of the subject that appear under the World Health Organization (WHO) imprint have paid almost no attention to two thirds of WHO's definition of health: “…mental and social well-being…,” while focusing overwhelmingly on the physical aspects. This imbalance is so striking that in a recent WHO-affiliated publication the authors suggested that social consequences may be “the forgotten dimension.” This, despite the fact that drinking plays very important roles in many societies with respect to such widely recognized and appreciated benefits as celebration, relaxation, sociability, enhancement of food, concretization of the social order, and time out, in addition to medical and therapeutic benefits. The time is ripe for increasing collaboration to investigate such social benefits in ways that would be of greater interest and of use to those who heretofore have neglected them.