[Health education as prevention of alcoholism in young people]

The close correlation between road accidents and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, as well as the lowering of the minimal age for alcohol drinking, prompted the Authors to examine the acute and chronic effects of alcohol on the human organism; therefore, they analyze the metabolic effects of alcohol and, after having described it's few beneficial effects, they furnish some suggestions to avoid above all "the havoc of Saturday evening", outlining in detail the causes and progressive states of alcoholic intoxication. The Authors, in agreement with the current views of prevention, professed by the scientific community, emphasize information and health education as the main tools that guarantee primary prevention in young people who, as it is well-known, belong to the most vulnerable segments of the population. To such purpose they created a poster, to which a CD will follow, that could be distributed and discussed in schools with the purpose to encourage social debate and constructive involvement of students, teachers and their parents.