This book is based on a series of reports on the health and social consequences of alcohol misuse presented to the European Economic Community. Each of the chapters is written by internationally acclaimed experts, who have reviewed their own chosen fields and contributed possible future research directions. A review of trends in consumption are followed by a report of the racial, ethnic and gender differences in alcohol misuse. The importance of alcohol, as a nutritional source, in the pathogenesis of tissue damage, the role of malnutrition deficiencies in alcohol misusers is also discussed. Chapters review organs which are damaged by misuse, such as the liver, pancreas, brain, muscle, skin, and bone. The relationship between alcohol misuse and malignancy and the HIV disease completes the biomedical areas.