A number of indicators point towards sharp increases in alcohol-related problems in the United States over the past 10 to 15 years. After a 25–30 year decline, the death rate from liver cirrhosis flattened in the mid-1990s and began to increase around 2006 (Yoon and Chen, 2016). Much of this increase appears to be driven by alcohol-related deaths. Between 2006 and 2016, the death rate from alcoholic liver disease increased over 40% from 4.1 per 100,000 in 2006 to 5.9 per 100,000 in 2016, while death rates from fibrosis and cirrhosis not specified as alcohol-related remained approximately unchanged between the years 2000 and 2016 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017a). A sharp increase in alcohol-related emergency department visits over the years 2006–2014 has also been reported, with the majority of the increase occurring among people ages 45 and older (White et al., 2018). Finally, a recent analysis of data from two administrations of the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) concerning the prevalence of past 12-month DSM-IV alcohol use disorder (AUD) among US adults ages 18
