title: Alcohol as a trigger for medical emergencies.
abstract: In this paper, our goal is to report relative risks of the impact of alcohol consumption 6 hours prior to medical emergencies presenting in the emergency department for 8,346 patients in seven countries using data from the Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project. We found that alcohol increased the risk of a medical emergency by 2.17 times (confidence interval: 1.78-2.65), and those without a regular pattern of heavy drinking and those younger showed a greater risk. Acute alcohol is associated not only with injury but also with medical emergencies. More studies are needed on the acute role of alcohol in medical emergencies, preferably with data on the type of medical emergencies.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Psychiatry, Mexico City, Mexico. guibor@imp.edu.mx
authors.forename: Guilherme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borges
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cherpitel
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Orozco
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Giesbrecht
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moskalewicz
authors.forename: Grazyna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Swiatkiewicz
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cremonte
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004630:Emergencies / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk