Dipsomania

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A dipsomaniac is a person with an uncontrollable craving for alcohol, especially alcoholic liquors. It differs from alcoholism in that it is an uncontrollable periodic lust for alcohol, with, in the interim, no desire for alcoholic beverages. "Dipsomania" is usually thought of as a dated term.

[edit] Famous Dipsomaniacs

In 1921, John W. Robertson theorized that Dipsomania could have been the cause of death for writer Edgar Allan Poe.

The Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.
Another famed self-described "dipsomaniac" is New York writer Jonathan Ames.
The character of Sebastian Flyte, from the novel Brideshead Revisited, memorably and sarcastically describes himself as a dipsomaniac, ("If they treat me like a dipsomaniac, they can bloody well have a dipsomaniac"). He is later called the same by his brother, and a "dipso", by one of the minor characters.