David Hasselhoff was hospitalized due to yet another drinking binge Hasselhoff, an America's got Talent Judge, spent two nights in hospital after a wild drinking bender in the wake of Simon Cowell's party. His partying went a bit too far and he was reported to have hit a physician who was tending to him in the eye.

Research from Canada's own Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) featured in this week's edition of the Lancet shows that worldwide, 1 in 25 deaths are directly attributable to alcohol consumption. This rise since 2000 is mainly due to increases in the number of women drinking.

In its report, 'Hitting the Bottle', the Policy Exchange recommends that "Drinkers admitted to hospital for less than 24 hours, such as those needing stomach pumps or just sleeping off the effects of a heavy night, should be made to pay up to £532."

The Daily Mail reports that "Up to 70 per cent of visits to hospital casualty departments are alcohol-related."

Alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales are twice as high among people born in Scotland or Ireland compared with the rest of the population, a study has shown.

With many local and national governments currently debating proposals to raise alcohol taxes, a timely new study published online today in the February edition of Addiction journal finds that the more alcoholic beverages cost, the less likely people are to drink.

A new study suggests that genetic factors influence size variations in a certain region of the brain, which could in turn be partly responsible for increased susceptibility to alcohol dependence.

The work follows a study carried out by Oregon Health and Science University, which suggested a link between a gene mutation in mice and tolerance to alcohol. Researchers at Liverpool have investigated this in worms, looking specifically at the role the gene plays in communication between cells in the nervous system.

After many years of heavy drinking, alcohol produces pathological alterations in the brain. In many alcoholics these changes culminate in massive social deterioration and disorders of memory and learning. Severe cognitive impairments occur in approximately 10% of heavy drinkers.

It's a Catch-22 of the highest order. People with alcohol problems often use alcohol to get to sleep -- but it actually keeps them from getting good-quality sleep all night long.

An experimental drug that blocks the euphoric feelings associated with drinking may prevent alcoholics from relapsing. The finding, the result of a mouse study at Oregon Health & Science University, could lead to human clinical trials within the next year.

In recent years, a class of small molecules known as microRNA have been found to play an important role in regulating gene products in most animal and plant species. A new study now indicates that microRNA may influence the development of alcohol tolerance, a hallmark of alcohol abuse and dependence.