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16 Phat Facts about Bingeing
and Social Drinking - as found in OUR DRINK

1. The percentage of students who said they drank alcohol to get drunk climbed from 39.9 percent in 1993 to 48.2 percent in 2001.
2. Drinking to get drunk is cited as the primary reason for consuming alcohol by 47 percent of students who drink.
3. The U.S. surgeon general has established a goal of 50 percent reduction in college binge drinking by the year 2010.
4. Boys usually try alcohol for the first time at 11 years old; the average age for American girls’ first drink is 13.
5. Adults drinking alcohol is quite different from adolescents drinking alcohol (an adolescent is a person approximately aged 12-20). It takes five to ten years for some adults to become alcoholic from the time of the first drink. But because adolescent brains are at a different stage of growth, it may take only five to fifteen months for them to become alcoholic once they begin drinking.
6. The most recent research is showing that the adolescent brain is even more vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol than the adult brain.
7. More than 10 million current drinkers in the United States are between the ages of 12-20. Of these young drinkers, 20 percent engage in binge drinking and 6 percent are heavy drinkers.
8. Nearly one in every five teenagers (16 percent) has experienced blackouts after which they could not remember what happened the previous evening.
9. For an adolescent, even binge drinking one single time can cause irreparable harm.
10. Not only is there concern about the immediate effects of heavy, chronic-drinking, but the long-lasting consequences of this abuse.
11. Approximately 14 million people in the United States--one in every thirteen adults--abuses alcohol or is alcoholic. Males are more alcohol dependent and experience more alcohol-related problems. The highest rates of problems are among young adults ages 18-29.
12. Even social drinkers who drink heavily on the weekends can acquire these deficits, as well as young people in high school, college, and the young adult working world.
13. During blackouts students do all kinds of activities such as driving autos, vandalizing property, engaging in sex, or spending large amounts of money. And the next day, they have no memory of it.
14. In the College Alcohol Study, one out of every four students who drank reported having forgotten where they were or what they did while drinking during the school year.
15. One-third of college students have alcohol disorders and 6 percent meet clinical criteria for dependency.
16. Heavy social drinkers who are not in treatment but function relatively well in the community exhibit the same patterns of brain damage as seen in hospitalized alcoholics (men must consume an average of 100 drinks per month and women must consume an average of 80 per month).

Fact References

1. Kapner, Daniel Ari. “Infofacts Resources: Alcohol and Other Drugs on Campus-The Scope of the Problem,” [3/15/04] as found at http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs/factsheets/scope.html
   Weschsler, H.; Lee, J.E.; Kuo, M; Seibring, M; Nelson, T. F.; and Lee, H. “Trends in College Binge Drinking during a Period of Increased Prevention Efforts: Findings from 4 Harvard School of Public Health Study Surveys, 1993-2001.” Journal of American College Health 50: 203-217, 2002. For more information on CAS, visit www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/
2. Wechsler, H., J.E. Lee, M. Kuo, and H. Lee. “College Binge Drinking in the 1990’s: A Continuing Problem- Results of the Harvard School of Public Health 1999 College Alcohol Study.” Journal of American College Health 48.10 (2000): 199-210.
3. Wechsler, Henry, and Bernice Wuethrich. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses. New York City: Rodale, 2002
4. AMA Alliance Today, 1998.
5. Brown, S.A., S.F. Tapert, E. Granholm, and D.C. Delis. “Neurocognitive Functioning of Adolescents: Effects of Protracted Alcohol Use.” Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 24.2 (February 2000).
6. Giedd, J. N. et al. “Brain Development during Childhood and Adolescence: A Longitudinal MRI Study.” Nature Neuroscience 2:10 (October 1999).
7. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Tenth Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health: Highlights from Current Research. Alexandria, VA: EEI, September 2000.
8. “Young People and Alcohol.” Summary of Findings from the American Academy of Pediatrics Survey: Teen Alcohol Consumption, American Academy of Pediatrics, September 1998, as retrieved March 10, 2004 at Alcohol Policies Project http://www.cspinet.org/booze/alcyouth.html
9. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “Cognitive Impairment and Recovery from Alcoholism.” Alcohol Alert 53 (July 2001).
10. Crews, F. T., C.J. Braun, B. Hoplight, R. C. Switzer III, and D.J. Knapp. “Binge Ethanol Consumption Causes Differential Brain Damage in Young Adolescent Compared with Adult Rats.” Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 24.11 (November 2000).
11. “NIAAA Releases Estimates of Alcohol Abuse and Dependence.” Media Advisory, March 17, 1995.
12. Kuhn, Cynthia , Scott Swartzwelder, Wilkie Wilson. Buzzed: The Straight Facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
13. White, A. M., D. Jamieson-Drake, and H. S. Swartzwelder. “Prevalence and Correlates of Alcohol-Induced Blackouts among College Students.” Journal of American College Health. In review.
14. Wechsler, Henry, and Bernice Wuethrich. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses. New York City: Rodale, 2002
15. “One-Third of College Students Have Alcohol Disorders.” Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, June 17, 2002 as found at www.jointogether.org
16. “Brain Damage from Heavy Social Drinking.” Healy, Michelle, USA Today, April 15, 2004 as cited from Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Dieter Meyerhoff at University of California.