This report describes recent progress in knowledge on alcohol abuse and alcoholism. These topics are covered: (1) alcohol abuse and alcoholism, including drinking patterns, etiology, and alcohol dependence as a disease; (2) epidemiology, including morbidity and deaths; (3) genetics and environment, including twin and adoption studies, animal studies, potential markers of susceptibility, psychological and social processes, longitudinal studies generational trends in familial alcoholism, and perspectives on gene-environment; (4) neuroscience, including acute and chronic effects of alcohol, behavioral measures and alcohol as a reinforcing substance, and alcohol effects on the human brain; (5) medical consequences, including alcohol-induced liver disorders, effects on the gastrointestinal tract, nutritional and metabolic disorders, effects on the cardiovascular and immune systems, and effects on endocrine and reproductive functions; (6) fetal alcohol syndrome and other effects of alcohol on pregnancy outcomes, including clinical studies, research on the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in animal models, studies on mechanisms of fetal alcohol damage, and public awareness and policy; (7) adverse social consequences, including accidents, suicide, trauma, crime and violence, and economic costs of alcohol abuse; (8) diagnosis and assessment of alcohol use disorders, including approaches to classifying alcohol use disorders and assessment; (9) prevention, including basic and applied research; (10) early and minimal intervention, including identification, intervening with drinking drivers, and employee assistance programs; (11) treatment, including management of alcohol dependence, components of treatment, and outcome evaluation methods. (ABL)