More than 30 percent of Americans have met the criteria for an alcohol-use disorder sometime in their lives, according to a new report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Researchers who surveyed U.S. adults in 2001-02 found that of those who met the criteria for alcohol dependence, only 24.1 percent had received any type of treatment, and just 7 percent of those who met the criteria for alcohol abuse had received treatment.

Most of those surveyed developed alcohol problems in their early 20s but didn't get treatment until their early 30s, if at all. "A lost decade between AUD [alcohol-use disorder] onset and treatment leads to personal disability and societal damage," according to NIAAA Director Ting-Kai Li, M.D.

"Today's report signals the need for intensive efforts to educate professionals and the public to identify and address AUDs early in their course."

The conclusions were drawn from an analysis of the 2001-02 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC).

The study appears in the July 2007 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.