Short Communication Beliefs about drinking problems: Results from a general population telephone survey John A. Cunningham a,b, * , Jan Blomqvist c , Joanne Cordingley a a Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada b University of Toronto, Canada c Research and Development Unit, Social Services Administration, Stockholm, Sweden Abstract As part of a general population telephone survey (N = 3006), respondents were asked their beliefs about alcohol problems. The majority of respondents were skeptical about the possibility of untreated and of moderate drinking recoveries. The predominant conceptions of the nature of alcohol problems were those of a disease or of drug addiction. Beliefs about the need for treatment and abstinence were positively associated with being female, older, and married. Current heavy drinkers were less likely to believe that treatment was needed. Former heavy drinkers were more likely to believe that abstinence was required, as compared to all other respondents. D 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Alcohol; Beliefs; Untreated recoveries; Moderate drinking; Disease concept Beliefs about the causes and cures of alcohol problems sometimes contradict research evidence. Two such assumptions are that treatment is required to deal with alcohol problems and that former problem drinkers cannot drink in a social manner after resolving their drinking concerns. While it is certainly true that untreated and moderate drinking recoveries are less common among those who had severe drinking problems (Cunningham, 1999), there is clear evidence that such recoveries do occur no matter how stringent the definition of alcohol problems employed (Dawson, 1996). The present study employed a general population survey to identify the demographic characteristics, conceptions of alcohol abuse and 0306-4603/$ - see front matter D 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.03.011 * Corresponding author. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2S1. E-mail address: John _ Cunningham@camh.net (J.A. Cunningham). Addictive Behaviors 32 (2007) 166 – 169