About Alcoholism - Alcoholism Information, Research and Treatment

Michael M. Baden, MD, deputy chief medical examiner of the City of New York, reported that deaths due to alcoholism are widely underreported. In one year in New York City, of the more than 6,000 deaths related to alcoholism, only 1,716 cases were so indicated on the death certificate. Two factors are responsible: fears of stigmatization and the nature of the death certificate. When an older alcoholic dies, his physician often lists another cause of death, such as heart disease, which is more acceptable to the family. Even when a diagnosis of cirrhosis is listed without including alcoholism, perhaps because the physician feels that alcoholism is implicit, this relationship is not understood by the statisticians, epidemiologists, and program planners who interpret the data. That year, 1,383 deaths were recorded as due to cirrhosis associated with alcoholism and 1,746 as due to cirrhosis not associated with alcoholism--patently misleading data, according to Dr. Baden.