Binge Drinking - Health Effects - Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Adolescence and Young Adulthood

The high levels of binge drinking among young people and the adverse consequences which includes increased risk of alcoholism as an adult and liver disease make binge drinking a major public health issue. Recent research has found that young college binge drinkers who drink 4/5+ drinks on more than 3 occasions in the past 2 weeks are statistically 19 times more likely to develop alcoholism than non-binge drinkers, though the direction of causality remains unclear. This is particularly interesting as drinking for the sole purpose of getting drunk, remains a major health and social problem on college campuses across the United States. Heavy and regular binge drinking during adolescence is associated with an increased risk of alcoholism. Approximately 40 percent of alcoholics report heavy drinking during adolescence. Repeated episodes of excessive drinking, especially at an early age, are thought to cause a profound increase in the risk of developing an alcohol-related disorder (ICD-10, harmful use/dependence syndrome). Other risk factors which influence the development of alcohol abuse or alcoholism include social and genetic factors. Several researchers have found that starting drinking before the age of 15 is associated with a fourfold increased risk for developing alcoholism compared to people who delay drinking until age 20 or later. It has been estimated by some that if the age at which people started drinking could be delayed to age 20, there would be a 50 percent reduction in the number of cases of alcohol use disorder. However, it is unclear whether this is a causal relationship, or a function of confounding familial (and other) factors associated with both age at first drink and propensity for alcoholism.

Being associated with certain groups, especially in the college setting influences young adults and their decision to engage in binge drinking. Students exposed or involved in the Greek system are more prone to heavy drinking as well as college athletes, where alcohol prevention efforts are practiced but not always holding the desired result of reducing the number of binge drinkers attending colleges and universities. In addition to identifying these groups, it is understood that student drinkers choose to engage in this behavior as a means of fitting in with what is considered a social norm. Students are confronted with social pressures involving binge drinking and if ignored, risk being isolated from others. This reality examines the psychological workings associated with continued binge drinking at colleges and universities across the United States. Along with drinking being portrayed as an individual’s choice, drinking in the college setting can also be portrayed as a collaborative choice, involving many students. Annual rankings of America’s top party schools are an unsuspecting factor that contributes to continued binge drinking among campuses. Students are proud of their university’s drinking reputation, fueled by competition to outdrink rival schools. A sense of identity is brought to each university holding this label and gives further insight as to why continued alcohol consumption thrives around hundreds of universities.

The main cause of death among adolescents as a result of binge drinking is road traffic accidents; a third of all fatal road traffic accidents among 15- to 20-year-olds are associated with drinking alcohol. Cyclists and pedestrians are likely to have less spatial awareness and concentration while travelling after binge drinking and additionally adolescents who binge drink more commonly drive drunk or are the passenger of a drunk driver. It has been found that 50 percent of all head injuries in adolescents in the USA are associated with alcohol consumption. Violence and suicide combine to become the third-most-common cause of death associated with binge drinking among adolescents. The suicide risk in adolescents is more than 4 times higher among binge drinkers than non-binge drinking adolescents.

Earlier sexual activity, increased changing of sexual partners, higher rate of unwanted (teenage) pregnancy, higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, and alcohol-related damage to the fetus during pregnancy is associated with binge drinking. Female binge drinkers are three times more likely to be victims of sexual assault; 50 percent of adolescent girls reporting sexual assault were under the influence of alcohol or another psychotropic substance at the time.

Adolescents who regularly participated in binge drinking for several years show a smaller hippocampus brain region, particularly those who began drinking in early adolescence. Heavy binge drinking is associated with neurocognitive deficits of frontal lobe processing and impaired working memory as well as delayed auditory and verbal memory deficits. Animal studies suggest that the neurodegenerative effects of alcohol abuse during adolescence can be permanent. Research in humans, which utilised sophisticated brain scanning technology suggests that in adolescent teenagers, drinking more than 4 or 5 drinks once or twice a month results in subtle damage to the teenagers developing brain tissue, particularly the white matter. However, this research is primarily cross-sectional and done with fairly small sample sizes, making causality less certain.