Samenvatting
Although alcohol is recognized as contributing to injury, it has been assumed that the relationship is attributable to alcohol's impairment of performance. Evidence is accumulating from animal studies that alcohol increases the extent of injury from any given trauma. Clinical studies have failed to confirm these findings, but there are important differences between the two bodies of research. Motor vehicle crashes afford an opportunity to examine the potentiating effects of alcohol on injury in circumstances analogous to the laboratory studies.