In this http://www.selleckchem.com/products/PD-0332991.html study, the all-cause mortality was higher among men than women; however, the number of deaths in women was few and the increased mortality was not statistically significant. Considering the differences in genders, Roerecke and Rehm2 state that the RR for men was lower than that for women with AUD, and this was also consistent with previous meta-analysis.1 In an Icelandic study, included in the meta-analyses,2 3 Thorarinsson found a mortality ratio of 2.24 for alcoholic males17 and our HR of 1.88 (CI 1.44 to 2.47) for men does not contradict that finding

since different methods were used in identifying the exposed groups. Parlesak et al18 and Kinney19 suggested an explanation for the differences between genders—how women’s bodies are more susceptible to alcohol. Our results indicated that men in the AUD group are more likely to die from most causes of death than men in the comparison group. Women in the AUD group are more likely than women in the comparison group to die from alcohol-related

diseases such as AUD, mental and behavioural disorders, diseases of the circulatory system and from events of undetermined intent. However, there were too few women in this study to allow us to generalise due to the small amount of data. Population-based studies on AUDs and mortality among women seem to be lacking,2 so this study has a unique position, however, small. Alcohol is a major cause of chronic liver diseases worldwide20 and our results are certainly in agreement: the

HRs for chronic liver disease and alcohol liver disease were 14.69 and 19.06, respectively. In this study, HR for AUD (ICD-10 code F10) is almost 50-fold. Unfortunately, this cause of death was not reported in recent meta-analysis.3 According to McDonald et al12 and Shultz et al,21 AUDs are classified as alcohol-related diagnosis with alcohol-attributable fraction 1. In this study, high ratios were found for suicide, accidental poisoning Brefeldin_A and events of undetermined intent. Previous studies have found an association between alcohol use and suicide.2 6 Mental disorders are also associated with suicide.6 7 22 Our findings show that patients in the AUD group are frequent users of the ED. A previous study from Stockholm, Sweden on AUD patients similarly showed that these patients were frequent users of ED.9 A recent study from Boston, Massachusetts showed that frequent users of the ED had alcohol-related visits and symptoms.10 A study from UK found that alcohol users are not only frequent users of medical services like EDs, but are also underusers of preventative services.23 Studies on unspecified frequent users of EDs indicate that they have poor physical and mental health, lack social support and are in socioeconomic distress.