Debate on harms and benefits of moderate drinking continues

The Annals recently published the proceedings of a symposium on the health effects of moderate alcohol. A summary of the symposium was written by the organizers and sent to the readership of several other journals. Others at the symposium had a differing view of the conclusions. In particular, there is disagreement over interpretation of the epidemiologic data that support or refute the contention that moderate alcohol consumption has health benefit, and over whether that issue was resolved at the Symposium. Also available is a response from guest editors to the commentary. Readers of The Annals will find the arguments of considerable interest, since they invoke fundamental epidemiologic issues of bias and misclassification that are at the center of so much epidemiologic work, and we would welcome any further commentary from the readership on these issues. – The Editor

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