Alcoholic deaths have doubled every year since 1999

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Dying for a drink? –

Jan. 13, 2020 – Nearly half of alcohol deaths were due to liver diseases or overdoses linked to alcohol alone or alcohol and other drugs. The other half included, among many factors, car crashes, other unintentional injuries, suicide, homicide, and heart disease.

According to the researchers, the deaths tracked with other research showing a rise in the consumption of alcohol and related harms, including emergency room visits and other hospitalizations. … There were nearly 1 million alcohol-related deaths between 1999 and 2017, the study found. In that same time frame, drug overdose deaths totaled a bit over 700,000.

The researchers cautioned that their figures likely undercount the number of alcohol-related deaths. A previous analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on 2006 to 2010 data, put deaths due to excessive drinking at 88,000 per year. But that analysis relied on more than data from death certificates, which are known to miss potentially thousands of alcohol-related deaths. With a more expansive analysis like the CDC’s, the study’s results could have been even worse.