Alcoholic intoxication, or Alcoholic drunkenness, is due to massive ingestion of alcoholic beverages. It is a state of psychic excitement and motor incoordination that may progress to coma.

Acute alcoholic intoxication can be authentified by the measurement of alcohol concentration in blood or in using a breathalyser. Numerous studies, using psychomotor tests or sensorial tests, have uncovered important disturbances above an alcoholemic threshold of 0.8 g/l. These disturbances have been much stressed upon for their role in the occurence of accidents, among them road accidents (See Alcohol and Driving).
Alcoholic drunkenness is typically characterized by the succession of 3 phases : a phase of excitement, followed by an ebrious state, itself followed by a state of depression that may progress to coma.

Some states of alcoholic drunkenness come with hallucinations, convulsions or delirium and may be lead to violent reactions from the subject. Jealousy and persecution are common themes in the delirious forms.
Other intoxicated individuals experience a state of depression that may dangerously entail a suicidal risk.

Some drunken subjects may have transient amnesia, of which they are aware : these so-called "black-out" episodes are very anxiogenic and are difficult to confess.

Trauma linked to alcohol are the fourth highest cause of death, after coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer. They represent the main cause of death in people less than 40 years of age.

Alcohol abuse reduces motor coordination and balance, and is associated with changes in attention, perception and judgment. These effects explain why alcohol consumption increases the risk of injury and accidents. It is often implicated in dangerous behaviour and, as a consequence, is frequently associated with trauma.

Several studies have shown that 20-37% of injuries treated in hospital accident and emergency departments are linked to alcohol consumption.