Drinking patterns are of common interest to all who want to understand the dynamics of changes in the link between per capita alcohol consumption and the prevalence of alcohol-ralated harm. This report, being a part of the EU-funded European Comparative Alcohol Study (ECAS), provides a review of research on drinking patterns among the adult population in 15 European countries (the EU member states (except Luxembourg) and Norway) since 1950. The 15 country reports demonstrate that the existing materials, although scarce and scattered, support the view that changes in drinking patterns are slow and occur in decades and generations rather than in a few years