A new study is finding that 14 percent of American adults currently have an alcohol use disorder, officials said Thursday.

The new study, which was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, looked at the prevalence of drinking issues based on a new definition for alcohol use disorders in the DSM-5 handbook, according to Time.

“It surely doesn’t surprise me,” said Cary Quashen from Action Family Counseling in Santa Clarita. “Alcohol is one of the leading causes of death and illnesses.”

Many have never been treated, Time reports. Thirty percent of those interviewed said they had an alcohol-related problem at some time in their lives.

“We really need to pay attention to what we are doing and what we are putting in our bodies,” Quashen said. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know somebody who was affected by drugs or alcohol.”

The handbook defines an alcohol use disorder as having two of 11 symptoms, including continuing to drink even if it harms relationships, drinking that harms performance at work or school, or the inability to quit, according to Time. The more symptoms a person has, the more severe their AUD.

Men were more likely than women to have problems with alcohol, the article notes. Among 18- to 29-year-old men, about 7 percent showed symptoms of the more severe form of AUD.

“These findings underscore that alcohol problems are deeply entrenched and significantly under-treated in our society,” NIAAA Director George F. Koob, PhD, said in a news release. “The new data should provide further impetus for scientists, clinicians, and policy makers to bring AUD treatment into the mainstream of medical practice.

The study, based on interviews with more than 36,000 adults, appears in JAMA Psychiatry. Only 20 percent of those with an alcohol-related problem said they had sought treatment, according to Time. The researchers noted they saw large increases in alcohol use disorder rates over the past decade.

“As a society we are getting a lot of great information,” Quashen said, “and information is knowledge and knowledge is power.”

About Action Family Counseling

Action Family Counseling has drug and alcohol residential treatment locations in Santa Clarita, Piru, and Bakersfield; Intensive Drug and Alcohol Outpatient in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Ventura, Pasadena, and Bakersfield, Action Family Counseling is here to help you.

Action Family Counseling’s primary goals are to maintain abstinence, stabilize co-occurring illnesses, and increase quality of life. We support and reinforce change in behavior patterns so that adolescents and adults, or clients and their families can fully indoctrinate the philosophies and principles needed to remain abstinent and stabilized for life.

Action Family Counseling accomplishes this by providing an effective treatment approach developed by the Department of Health and Human Services that includes a multi-disciplinarian personalized approach by a treatment team. Once a patient is identified, we provide an initial screening and assessment, which allows us to properly diagnose and place patients in the appropriate treatment setting.

Once a patient completes our intake process to our residential program he or she receives 24-hour crisis management, individual counseling, group therapy, family education and counseling, treatment planning, routine and random toxicology screening, pharmacotherapy and medication management, education about Alcohol and Other Drugs and mental health issues, self-help and support group orientation, case management services, and discharge service planning with a transitional service plan to our Intensive Outpatient treatment program to ensure a continuum of care.