Table 1.

Characteristics of the Subjects Included in the Study

Subject	Cause of death	Age/gender/race	Duration of dependence^a	PMI	pH	TF
Control
1	N	71/M/C		24	6.82	24
2	N	58/M/C		22	6.78	35
3	H	24/M/AAm		15	6.84	37
4	N	30/F/C		9	6.75	32
5	N	47/M/C		17	6.89	7
6	A	23/F/C		11	6.85	23
7	H	46/F/C		27	6.32	13
8	N	27/F/C		15	7.01	22
Mean ± SD		Age 41 ± 18		18 ± 6	6.78 ± 0.20	24 ± 10
Alcoholism
9	S	50/M/C	2	17	6.67	78
10	S	36/M/C	21	15	6.72	12
11	S	37/M/C	23	19	6.89	68
12	S	24/M/C	4	12	6.89	64
13	S	45/M/C	7	29	6.86	59
14	S	51/M/C	33	22	7.07	52
15	S	44/M/C	10	20	6.77	27
16	S	30/F/C	9	17	6.77	31
17	N	61/M/AAm	46	27	6.68	75
18	N	29/M/C	14	27	6.75	26
19	A	30/M/C	15	12	6.49	66
20	N	54/M/C	39	24	6.42	61
21	N	41/F/C	20	24	6.74	60
22	A	50/M/C	20	14	6.66	45
23	N	40/F/C	21	27.5	6.67	34
Mean ± SD		Age 41 ± 11	19 ± 13	20 ± 6	6.74 ± 0.16	50 ± 20

AAm, African American; A, accident; C, Caucasian; F, female; H, homicide; M, male; N, natural; PMI, postmortem interval (hours), defined as the time between death and the beginning of the formalin fixation; S, suicide, TF, time in formalin (months).

The duration (years) of alcohol dependence covers the time between the first display (and not necessarily diagnosis) of signs of dependence and the date of death.