[Availability, consumption of alcoholic beverages and alcohol-related mortality in Italy].

On the basis of the W.H.O. guide lines the relevant parameters for the study of alcoholism in Italy have been identified. The production and utilization of alcoholic substances is very high, then appears to have reached a plateau about ten years ago. Likewise, consumption has not increased since a few years. Hospital admissions for symptoms related to alcoholism are no more available after the closure of all mental hospitals in 1978. Alcohol-related deaths seem to be stable, as well as cause specific death rates for cirrhosis .