What a diagnosis of alcoholism means and where alcohol craving comes from
A doctor who diagnoses alcoholism enters a disease code in the medical records: F10.2 in the ICD-10 classification, or 6C40.2 in the newer ICD-11. Alcohol addiction is a disease entity in its own right, and we treat it by the same rules as other chronic illnesses.
The diagnosis rests on several features that have to occur together over a longer period. The patient feels an urge to drink that is hard to resist. They lose control over how much they drink and when they stop. They need ever larger amounts of alcohol for the same effect, which means their tolerance is rising. They keep drinking despite worsening test results, trouble at work and conflicts at home. After a break in drinking, withdrawal symptoms appear: trembling hands, sweating, restlessness, insomnia.
These symptoms arise from changes in the way the brain works. Regular drinking alters the reward system in the brain and the way the body responds to stress. Alcohol then becomes the body's fastest way of lowering tension, which is why the need for a drink returns even after the patient has decided to stop.
The illness runs a chronic, relapsing course. We therefore plan alcoholism treatment to run over months rather than weeks, and we allow for the risk of a return to drinking from the outset.
Which drinking the disease classification already counts as harmful
Risky drinking has not caused damage to health yet, but it raises the likelihood that it will. Harmful drinking has a code of its own in the ICD classification, F10.1, because the damage has already occurred: raised blood pressure, liver damage, an accident, a conflict in the family. The patient still controls how much they drink, however. We diagnose addiction, that is F10.2, only once alcohol craving, loss of control, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms are also present.
The pattern of drinking can be assessed initially with the AUDIT questionnaire, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Most of the questions cover the last twelve months rather than the last week, so a short break in drinking does not change the score. The score is not a diagnosis; it says only that the drinking needs to be discussed with a doctor, and whether this is harmful drinking or addiction is settled by a history and an examination.
There is no safe dose of alcohol, a position the WHO stated in 2023. That is why at the consultation we ask what the patient needs alcohol for during the day: to fall asleep, to hold a conversation, to wind down after work.
With harmful drinking, treatment covers several consultations, work on cutting down on the drinking and monitoring test results. With addiction, psychotherapy for the addiction is needed, supported by pharmacotherapy.
How we run alcoholism treatment in Radom from the consultation to supportive care
First we check whether the patient can stop drinking without medical supervision. This is settled by a medical consultation at the practice on Mireckiego 10: we take a history of the drinking and of any coexisting illnesses, examine the patient, order blood tests, and only on that basis draw up the treatment plan.
Then we run three parts of the treatment in parallel. Oral pharmacotherapy or the Esperal implant reduces the risk of reaching for alcohol in the first weeks. Addiction psychotherapy teaches the patient to cope without alcohol in the situations where they used to drink; we describe how it proceeds on the page about addiction therapy in Radom. At follow-up visits we assess the patient's health, the test results and how the medication is tolerated.
We run treatment plans in monthly, three-month, six-month and yearly versions. A month is enough to stop the drinking, set up the pharmacotherapy and hold the first therapy sessions. Changing everyday habits and working on the reasons for drinking take further months, which is why the longer versions also cover care after the intensive stage of treatment ends.
We work privately, so the patient gets an appointment for the first visit within a few days. Private treatment ensures discretion, but it is not anonymous: we record every visit in the medical records, which we keep and store as the regulations require, and the patient and the people they authorise have access to them. Without the patient's consent we pass on no information about the treatment, either to the family or to the employer.
Who we treat at the practice in Radom and who we send to a residential centre
We choose the setting at the consultation, after examining the patient. We take into account the course of the drinking so far, coexisting illnesses, the outcome of earlier attempts at treatment, and who is with the patient at home during the first weeks of abstinence.
Outpatient alcoholism treatment in Radom
On an outpatient basis we treat patients without severe health complications who are working and can keep to a regular schedule of follow-up visits. We set the times of visits and sessions so that the patient does not have to give up work. In this setting the patient faces everyday occasions for drinking from the first week and discusses them with the therapist as they arise.
Alcoholism treatment in a residential centre in Radom
We propose round-the-clock treatment for patients with advanced alcohol addiction or serious coexisting illnesses, after several interrupted attempts at outpatient treatment, and when there is alcohol in the patient's home all the time. A stay gives several weeks with no access to alcohol and daily contact with a therapist; we set out the qualification rules on the page about the addiction treatment centre in Radom.
Online alcoholism treatment and e-prescriptions in Radom
Remotely we continue treatment, monitor pharmacotherapy and consult patients who live outside Radom or travel for work. We do not qualify a patient for alcohol detox or for the Esperal implant procedure over the internet, because both decisions require a medical examination. We ask a patient in acute withdrawal to come to the practice, or we refer them for detox, because a screen makes it impossible to check their pulse, blood pressure or the severity of hand tremor.
When the Esperal implant enters the treatment plan and when tablets do
The choice of medicine depends on the patient's health and on whether they have decided on full abstinence or, for now, want only to cut down the amount of alcohol they drink. For each of these two goals the doctor reaches for a different preparation.
Naltrexone takes away the very thing the patient was drinking for: a drink no longer brings relaxation, and the urge to pour the next one weakens. Acamprosate reduces the tension, irritability and insomnia that drag on for weeks after the patient stops drinking, because after years of drinking the nervous system remains unsettled. The patient takes nalmefene as needed, an hour or two before a situation in which they usually drink; the medicine damps down the urge to keep topping up that builds while drinking, so the patient drinks less that day. Disulfiram, the same substance that the Esperal implant contains, means that even a small amount of alcohol ends in flushing of the face, palpitations, a drop in blood pressure and vomiting; the reaction is severe enough that the patient does not reach for alcohol as long as the medicine is working.
We place the Esperal implant in patients who need protection for a longer period and who accept full abstinence. The implant discourages drinking, but it does not treat alcoholism; we describe the tests before the procedure, the contraindications and the course of the appointment on the page about the Esperal implant in Radom.
The doctor selects the medicine once they know the test results, the coexisting illnesses and the other preparations the patient is taking. We run pharmacotherapy alongside addiction psychotherapy, because medicines reduce alcohol craving but do not teach the patient to handle tension without alcohol.
When stopping alcohol requires a doctor's supervision
A patient needs detox if they are breaking off a binge of several days or longer, have been drinking daily for weeks, have already been through a complicated withdrawal, or have chronic heart disease, liver disease or epilepsy. We take the decision after an examination and a history, because the amount of alcohol a patient reports does not always match the real one.
Alcohol detox is about getting the patient through withdrawal without danger to their health. Advertisements promise to cleanse the body of toxins, although the body breaks alcohol down by itself, without any procedure. Treatment is needed only for the symptoms that appear once the patient stops drinking.
Breaking off drinking after a binge of several days can bring on withdrawal seizures and alcohol-related delirium. Both states are life-threatening and require immediate help, so we take such patients through alcohol withdrawal under the supervision of medical staff, monitoring the pulse, the blood pressure and hydration.
After detox the withdrawal symptoms subside, but alcoholism treatment only begins at that point, because alcohol craving and the reasons for drinking remain. That is why we set the date of the first therapy session together with the date of the detox. The course of the first twenty-four hours, the medicines used and the tests are described on the page about alcohol detox in Radom.
How much time a patient has to react to a return to drinking
Drinking alcohol during treatment happens to many patients, and what happens in the following days determines the consequences. The sooner the patient reports that they drank, the less has to change in the treatment plan. A return to daily drinking, on the other hand, means the withdrawal symptoms come back and the patient has to stop drinking again under medical supervision.
We ask for a phone call the same day, with no explanations and without waiting for the next scheduled visit. At the visit we check the patient's health and the risk of withdrawal symptoms, and then establish what preceded the drinking: a missed dose of medicine, a break in the sessions, falling back in with old friends, overtime at work, or money troubles.
We then correct the pharmacotherapy, arrange more frequent sessions for the coming weeks, and with repeated relapses we propose the Esperal implant as protection for the period of greatest risk. We do not start the treatment from the beginning, because the skills built up earlier stay with the patient.
What we work on with the patient during the first year of abstinence
Once the intensive stage of treatment ends the visits become less frequent, but they do not stop, because the risk of relapse is highest in the first months without alcohol. We plan this stage with the patient for a specific number of meetings.
Most of the work goes into relapse prevention. The patient writes out the situations after which they used to reach for alcohol, such as a business trip, a visit to relatives, a weekend alone or the day after a row, and prepares a response to each of them: who they will tell, what they will do in the first hour, how they will leave the gathering. They practise these responses in sessions, before they are needed.
Pharmacotherapy lasts longer than psychotherapy. The patient takes naltrexone or acamprosate for as long as the doctor recommends, including after the last session. Beyond the visits at the practice the patient has self-help groups: there they meet people with similar experiences and have somewhere to go during the week without a scheduled appointment.
When a patient reports rising tension or insomnia coming back, we arrange an additional consultation within a few days, so that these symptoms do not end in drinking. If their mental state deteriorates, we refer the patient to a psychiatrist.
Where the family of a person who drinks looks for help in Radom
The city of Radom funds a helpline from its gminny program rozwiązywania problemów alkoholowych (the municipal programme for solving alcohol problems). The line gave 1,728 pieces of advice in 2022, 1,628 in 2023, 1,574 in 2024 and 1,071 in 2025. The city's report breaks these down neither by subject nor by caller, so it is not known what share of them concerned drinking in the family. The report gives no explanation for the fall in 2025.
Codependency means that the household arranges its everyday life around someone else's drinking: they check what state their relative came home in, take over their duties, cancel family gatherings and pay off their debts. Adult children from such homes come to the practice years later, most often with difficulties in close relationships and an excessive sense of responsibility for other people.
For a consultation for relatives there is no need to bring the person who drinks or to have their consent. We work then on the boundaries the family will manage to hold, and on what separates help from shielding the person who drinks from the consequences of drinking. If the addicted person refuses treatment, the family can file a notification with the gminna komisja rozwiązywania problemów alkoholowych (the municipal commission for solving alcohol problems); the commission conducts proceedings and, once it finds the statutory conditions met, files an application with the district court for an obligation to undergo addiction treatment.
How we treat alcoholism in a patient with depression or anxiety
We ask about mood, sleep and anxiety at every consultation, because depression, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder are among the illnesses that most often coexist with alcohol addiction. Alcohol suppresses these symptoms for a few hours, and once the patient stops drinking they come back stronger.
At the first visit it is rarely possible to settle whether low mood is a separate illness or a consequence of the drinking. We therefore assess the patient's mental state again after a few weeks of abstinence, when the clinical picture becomes clearer, and the psychiatrist then decides on medication.
We treat both illnesses within one plan. The psychiatrist is responsible for treating the depression, the anxiety disorder or the consequences of trauma, the addiction therapist for the work on the drinking, and each of them knows what the other is doing. Untreated depression saps the patient's strength for treatment and raises the risk of a return to drinking, so we do not put off treating it until the addiction therapy is over. With two diagnoses, treatment takes more time and requires more frequent follow-up visits.
How many Radom residents reach the commission with an application for addiction treatment
In 2025, 364 problem drinkers were reported to the Miejska Komisja Rozwiązywania Problemów Alkoholowych in Radom (the municipal commission for solving alcohol problems). The commission referred 87 of them for examination by court-appointed experts, received 58 opinions and filed 71 applications with the court for an obligation to undergo addiction treatment. Among those reported, young people are becoming more numerous: five years ago 4 people a year were under thirty, in the last year 21. Radom granted social assistance on account of alcoholism to 89 households.
A report to the commission is filed by someone close to the person who drinks, most often the family or the police, so these figures describe people whose drinking has stopped being a private matter, not every Radom resident struggling with alcohol addiction. What they do show is how narrow the bottleneck of this route is: out of 364 reports, 71 cases reached the court, and the proceedings before the commission and the court take months. A court decision, moreover, is not treatment but an obligation to undertake it. Treatment at Nasz Gabinet Radom starts with a consultation, which the patient books on their own, without a referral.
