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Dipsomania is a historical term describing a medical condition involving an uncontrollable craving for alcohol or drugs. In the 19th century, the term dipsomania was used to refer to a variety of alcohol-related problems, most of which are known today as alcohol use disorder. Dipsomania is occasionally still used to describe a particular condition of periodic, compulsive bouts of alcohol intake. The idea of dipsomania is important for its historical role in promoting a disease theory of chronic drunkenness. The word comes from Greek dipso (Greek: "δίψα"= thirst) and mania.

The term was coined by the German physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland in 1819, when, in a preface to an influential book by German-Russian doctor C. von Brühl-Cramer, he translated Brühl-Cramer's term "trunk such" as "dipsomania". Brühl-Cramer classified dipsomania in terms of continuous, remittent, intermittent, periodic and mixed forms, and in his book, he discussed its cause, pathogenesis, sequelae, and treatment options, all influenced by prevailing ideas about the laws of chemistry and concepts of excitability.

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