alcohol use and alcohol use disorders in bangladesh

background: this review was performed to evaluate the trend of alcohol use, characteristics of consumers, alcohol use disorders and toxic alcohol intoxications in bangladesh. in addition, sources and sales figures of alcoholic beverages, and number of legal permits issued for alcohol consumption are reported and analyzed. methods: a narrative search was performed on available medical literature in online medical databases including medline, embase, google scholar and bangladesh journal online (banglajol) to obtain articles related to alcohol use and related disorders in bangladesh. governmental legislations and reports related to alcohol use were also collected and reviewed. the main estimates are based on the data reported during 2006 to 2011.  results: estimated frequency of alcohol users in general population of bangladesh is about 1.9% (ci 1.7-2.1). prevalence of alcohol consumption is 3.6% (ci 3.3-4.1) among men and 0.3% (ci 0.2-0.5) among women. the majority of alcohol consumers are within 25 to 44 years of age (76.3%). total number of alcohol use permits has increased by 49.0% during 2006 to 2011. in total, 80637 permits have been issued up to 2011, and therefore it can be estimated that 79/100,000 people are legal alcohol consumers in bangladesh. the estimate of alcohol use prevalence (1.9%) is approximately 24 times higher than estimated legal consumers (0.08%). there is a growing trend over alcohol use in bangladesh, as alcohol per capital consumption has increased by about 100 times during 1973 to 2010. heavy episodic drinking has been reported in 20.2% (ci 16.3-24.8) of bangladeshi drinkers. alcohol dependence was estimated to be 0.7% in general population. conclusion: alcohol use is on the rise in bangladesh and it is particularly higher among some specific populations. targeted intervention programs may help stop this increasing trend.