THE number of prescription items were dispensed in the community last year, an increase of 14 per cent over the previous five years.
The annual cost of the drugs reached £315,000, up from £280,000 in 2008.
The number of hospital admissions where the main reason is an alcohol-related condition has fluctuated slightly in recent years, with a low of 3,180 in 2011 and a high of 3,442 the previous year.
The most recent figure for 2012 is 3,327 although the Department of Health said the numbers "should not be used to denote individuals as a person may be admitted to hospital more than once in a year or across a number of years".
Reasons for admission include alcoholic cardiomyopathy, alcoholic liver disease, foetal alcohol syndrome, a newborn affected by maternal use of alcohol, accidental poisoning and mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol.
In 2010, a total of 284 people died directly as a result of alcohol misuse, up around 40 per cent since 2001.
The cost of alcohol abuse to the north has been put at £900 million, including health, policing and justice spending.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has said it is "particularly concerned by the stark links between alcohol and suicide, particularly among people with mental health problems".
The organisation supports efforts to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol.
In England almost 180,000 prescription items were dispensed in the community last year - a 75 per cent increase in a decade - at a cost of £2.9m.
English hospitals admitted more than 200,000 cases last year.
The two drugs used in the maintenance of alcohol abstinence are acamprosate calcium and disulfiram.