Objective: To conduct an overview of alcohol-related health consequences and to estimate relative risk for chronic consequences and attributable fractions for acute consequences. Methods: Identification of alcohol-related consequences was performed by means of reviewing and evaluating large-scale epidemiological studies and reviews on alcohol and health, including epidemiological contributions to major social cost studies. Relative risks and alcohol-attributable fractions were drawn from the international literature and risk estimates were updated, whenever possible, by means of meta-analytical techniques. Results: More than 60 health consequences were identified for which a causal link between alcohol consumption and outcome can be assumed. Conclusions: Future research on alcohol-related health consequences should focus on standardization of exposure measures and take into consideration both average volume of consumption and patterns of drinking.

There are systematic influences on the shape of the risk curve between alcohol and all-cause mortality. The overall beneficial effect of light to moderate drinking remained under all scenarios, indicating a high validity of the overall shape despite the heterogeneity between studies.

The reactions of professionals after a patient suicide are still a subject of controversy in academic literature. This article reports on retrospective data about the aftermath experienced by mental health professionals working in institutional settings in Switzerland. Findings indicate that both self-rated emotional responses and traumatic impact were low for the majority of the 258 professionals surveyed. Variables that mediated the impact included the support received and the characteristics of the professional-patient relationship. No significant differences were found with regard to gender and profession.

Although patient suicide affected the professional life of psychiatrists and psychologists, it also encouraged them to review and adjust their working practices.

Alcohol use is related to a wide variety of negative health outcomes including morbidity, mortality, and disability. Research on alcohol-related morbidity and mortality takes into account the varying effects of overall alcohol consumption and drinking patterns. The results from this epidemiological research indicate that alcohol use increases the risk for many chronic health consequences (e.g., diseases) and acute consequences (e.g., traffic crashes), but a certain pattern of regular light-to-moderate drinking may have beneficial effects on coronary heart disease. Several issues are relevant to the methodology of studies of alcoholrelated morbidity and mortality, including the measurement of both alcohol consumption and the outcomes studied as well as study design. Broad summary measures that reflect alcohol's possible effects on morbidity, mortality, and disability may be more useful than measures of any one outcome alone. KEY WORDS: AODR (alcohol and other drug related) mortality; morbidity; epidemiological indicators; chronic AODE (alcohol and other drug effects); acute AODE; amount of AOD use; alcoholic beverage; heart disorder; meal and meal time Vol. 27, No. 1, 2002 * Definition of drinking categories: Category I: for females, 0-19.99 g pure alcohol daily; for males, 0-39.99 g pure alcohol daily Category II: for females, 20-39.99 g pure alcohol daily; for males, 40-59.99 g pure alcohol daily Category III: for females, 40 g or more pure alcohol; for males, 60 g or more pure alcohol. ** AF = attributable fraction-that is, the proportion of disease under consideration that is attributable to alcohol. † For liver cirrhosis, a combined estimate was derived for drinking categories II and III.