Daily heavy alcohol users frequently experience a withdrawal syndrome if they suddenly stop drinking. I’m pretty confident that 2 standard drinks per day is rarely enough to trigger withdrawal, and those who drink 8-10/day almost always experience some withdrawal, but I’m not clear on where the line is. I realize there is a lot of inter-individual variability in this, but I’m wondering if it has been investigated systematically. The duration of use clearly also affect this.*
Ideally, I would like to see a 3D graph showing the likelihood of withdrawal (at some threshold level of severity) according to daily dosage and length of exposure. Not being confident that this exists, any studies looking into the threshold daily intake required to trigger withdrawal would be welcome.
*There’s also a (somewhat controversial) concept known as ‘kindling’ whereby repeated detox attempts may cause worsening of withdrawal, but for the purpose of this question I’m assuming a first detox attempt.
The numbers of drinks in Figure 1 and figure 2 are ballpark guesstimates based on my experience with alcohol and with heavy drinkers and with my investigation of the best sources available on the topic.
But no mention of what these 'best sources' are. (I take his point about the ethical limitations on experimentation in the area, but observational data will do just fine for the descriptive info I'm seeking.)