PSYCHIATRIC CRITERIA OF LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY AFTER THE CONSUMPTION OFALCOHOL - THE GERMAN SITUATION

Psychiatry deals with addiction but it is not concerned very much abou t the symptomatology of acute alcohol intoxication. This causes proble ms in connection with the legal system: intoxication is the most frequ ent cause of diminished legal responsibility in Germany, and judges wa nt to have a system to assess the grade of intoxication as simply and reliably as possible. So they found the blood alcohol concentration (B AC) to be a safe indication. But the BAC has various effects not only on different people but also on the same person in different situation s: other factors are influential, i.e. alcohol habituation and physica l condition, personality, mood and situation. Therefore it is necessar y to describe the typical syndromes of intoxication and their dependen cy on BAC.