Alcohol is the third leading risk factor for Europeans disease and mortality. Romania has one of the biggest alcohol consumption per capita. The county of Vrancea comprises around 100.000 people, and is a well known wine grapegrowing region.

The assessment of patients with psychiatric disorders related to alcohol consumption hospitalized in the Psychiatric Department of the Hospital of Vrancea, over a 10 year period.

Patients with psychiatric disorders related to alcohol consumption hospitalized between 2002 and 2011 were analyzed in terms of socio-demographic variables: primary diagnosis at discharge, gender, age, residence, average number of hospitalization days. We used the computerized system of the hospital to evaluate those variables. For the primary diagnosis we have used the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).

Of 13.738 patients hospitalized over the study period (10 years), 3.376 (24.57%) were admitted for psychiatric disorder related to alcohol consumption (compared to schizophrenia - 18.19%). The most frequent disorders were: alcohol induced withdrawal (F10.3) - about one third; alcohol induced delirium tremens (F10.4) - around 20% and alcohol induced acute intoxication (F10.0) - around 20%. The majority of the patients were men (87.02%) and most of them were from the rural area. The average number of hospitalization days was around 5.5. Most of the patients were between 35 and 45 years old.

The greater percentage of alcohol induced disorders in our psychiatric unit indicates that we have to increase our efforts to reduce the harmful use of alcoholl, its health and social consequences.