Medical education must focus prevalent themes in communities; alcohol consumption is one of these themes. Our objective was to determine the frequency of the alcohol consumption related disorders and verify if a patient had more than one disease diagnosed, contributing to sociocentric education. It was a transversal retrospective study made by collection of medical records that had any reference to alcohol in a emergency room in 2000 (1901 cases). Alcohol direct effects were found in 80.38% of the patients, trauma in 28.56%, digestive and/or metabolic diseases in 27%, infections in 6.42% and nutritional disorders in 5.94%. Only one diagnosis was attributed in 46.6% of the cases and more than one in 48.67%. The most frequent disturbs were: intoxication, abstinence syndrome, gastritis, cirrhosis, dehydration, low or high glucose levels and trauma. Alcohol related disturbances are frequent and often associated; thus, alcohol abuse is an important content in a medical education.
alcohol; related disorders; emergency room; sociocentric education
