TY - JOUR T1 - Impact of minimum price per unit of alcohol on patients with liver disease in the UK JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - 396 LP - 403 DO - 10.7861/clinmedicine.14-4-396 VL - 14 IS - 4 AU - Nick Sheron AU - Fern Chilcott AU - Laura Matthews AU - Ben Challoner AU - Maria Thomas Y1 - 2014/08/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/14/4/396.abstract N2 - The slow epidemic of liver disease in the UK over the past 30 years is a result of increased consumption of strong cheap alcohol. When we examined alcohol consumption in 404 subjects with a range of liver disease, we confirmed that patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis drank huge amounts of cheap alcohol, with a mean weekly consumption of 146 units in men and 142 in women at a median price of 33p/unit compared with £1.10 for low-risk drinkers. For the patients in our study, the impact of a minimum unit price of 50p/unit on spending on alcohol would be 200 times higher for patients with liver disease who were drinking at harmful levels than for low-risk drinkers. As a health policy, a minimum unit price for alcohol is exquisitely targeted at the heaviest drinkers, for whom the impact of alcohol-related illness is most devastating. ER -