ABSTRACT
Alcohol (ethyl alcohol, ethanol) is by far the most widely used drug in the world, even in those countries where religious beliefs theoretically prevent its consumption. Ethanol is a small, water-soluble molecule that becomes distributed evenly throughout the body water; it passes easily across the blood-brain barrier and has a profound depressant effect upon the cerebral function. It is a drug with huge morbidity and mortality, with direct toxic effects on the body tissues, but alcohol also has significant indirect effects and it is a very common catalyst in the majority of assaults and homicides. The use, or rather abuse, of alcohol pervades all aspects of legal medicine from the precipitation of many road traffic accidents and accidents at work through to professional misconduct of doctors, for whom alcohol abuse provides one of the most common reasons for disciplinary proceedings. Every medical practitioner needs to know something of the metabolism and effects of this ubiquitous substance.
