Alcohol: acute and chronic effects
How ethanol is handled by the body, acute intoxication and its complications including alcoholic ketoacidosis and the head-injured drunk patient, and the organ damage of long-term heavy drinking.
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Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Alcohol causes harm in two ways: acute intoxication (injury, aspiration, hypoglycaemia, violence, drink driving) and chronic heavy use (liver, pancreas, heart, brain, nerves, cancer).
- An Australian standard drink is 10 g of alcohol. NHMRC 2020 advises healthy adults to drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and 4 on any day, and no alcohol in pregnancy, breastfeeding or under 18.
- Intoxication is a diagnosis of exclusion in a patient with a reduced GCS. Check glucose, image the head after any injury, and reassess as the level falls.
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Sources
- Therapeutic Guidelines: Toxicology and Toxinology (2024 update; ethanol intoxication moved here from Addiction)AU/NZTherapeutic Guidelines Limited, 2024
- Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcoholAU/NZNational Health and Medical Research Council, 2020
- Guidelines for the Treatment of Alcohol Problems (Haber PS, Riordan BC, eds), 4th editionAU/NZUniversity of Sydney for the Australian Government Department of Health, 2021
- Hamajima N et al. Alcohol, tobacco and breast cancer: collaborative reanalysis of individual data from 53 epidemiological studies. Br J Cancer 2002;87:1234-45British Journal of Cancer, 2002
- Fitzpatrick JP, Latimer J, Olson HC, et al. Prevalence and profile of neurodevelopment and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) amongst Australian Aboriginal children living in remote communities. Res Dev Disabil 2017;65:114-26Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2017
- Tsang TW et al. Ophthalmic findings in Aboriginal children with high rates of prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: the Lililwan Project. Ophthalmic Epidemiol 2025;32:61-8AU/NZOphthalmic Epidemiology, 2025
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
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