College Binge Drinking Worse Than Feared

College students may down as many as 24 alcoholic drinks in a row when they party — far more than any previous studies have indicated, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The study by the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation shows that university students, especially young men, may be drinking even more heavily, and dangerously, than parents and educators feared. Most research defines “binge drinking” as having five or more drinks in a row, without counting how far past five the drinkers go. The Berkeley, California-based nonprofit health research institute found that many of the 1,000 male college drinkers surveyed said they had 24 or more drinks in a row. “These are levels of drinking at which most men will have passed out or become comatose,” said Paul Gruenewald, who led the study. “These are levels at which drinkers are at risk for the very serious problems posed by peak drinking, including alcohol poisoning,” Gruenewald added in a statement. The study found that about 10 percent of the time, the drinkers had 12 or more drinks during a single session. “When you see just how much some students may drink, it’s easier to understand how these young people may suffer from many alcohol-related accidents and injuries, some as simple as falling out of a dormitory window.” The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, one of the National Institutes of Health. Women were not included in the study.(Source: Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation: Reuters Health News: September 2004.)