Abstract
The terms ‘alcohol intoxication’ and ‘drunkenness' have hitherto been used interchangeably. A distinction between these terms is justified. Anthropological research suggests that the behaviour displayed by people who have consumed alcohol has more to do with culturally-determined expectations than with the properties of alcohol. Subjects who believe they have consumed alcohol when they have not behave more aggressively than those who believe that they have not consumed alcohol. There are significant false-positive and false-negative rates when doctors use clinical signs to judge whether or not a patient is intoxicated. People who die in police custody after arrest for offences of drunkenness include a porportion who have a negligible quantity of alcohol in the body and whose cause of death is unrelated to alochol.
It is proposed: (1) that the term ‘alcohol intoxication’ should refer to a state in which alcohol is present in the body; (2) its diagnosis should be based on toxicological evidence for the presence of alcohol in body fluids or tissues; and (3) the term ‘drunkenness' should be used to describe behaviour displayed by people who have consumed, believe that they have consumed, or want others to believe that they have consumed, alcohol. Some clinical and legal implications of this distinction are discussed.
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