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BINGE DRINKING

DRINK CULTURE | Now just about every drink is available with an alcoholic twist to it.

Many people are used to socialising over a few drinks, but a trend has developed where those few drinks have become a few more, and a few more after that.

Binge drinking, carrying on drinking well past the outer limits of sobriety, is becoming an all-too frequent way to spend a night out. But the costs of drinking, both in personal terms and to wider society are high.

Is binge drinking a prelude to later alcohol addiction?

It used to be assumed that alcohol damage only affects the middle aged, who after years of drinking end up with a liver that's been shot to bits. The focus has been on the long-term effects of alcoholism.

The latest research however suggests that , and the effects can be seen in a relatively short space of time.

Researchers are now also looking at whether this early brain damage, or neurodegeneration, lays the foundation for addiction to alcohol.

Patterns of consumption are changing and now we tend to start drinking younger, and down more per sitting.

It has been estimated that our overindulgence costs the country 拢10 billion a year. The medical bill alone is estimated at 拢3 billion, or 12% of the total amount the NHS spends on its hospitals.

Concern is mounting over the number of youngsters who take part in drinking binges. .

Further medical research suggests that binge drinking in adolescence leads the brain to respond more sensitively to alcohol in the future.

Calls are being made to take binge drinking as seriously as we do drink-driving.

However alcohol is firmly rooted as part of our leisure culture and it is difficult to educate people as to the dangers of something that is so readily available in our society.

The Government is being put under increasing pressure to try and tackle binge drinking in the same way it continues to target drink-driving at the moment.

The 25 year campaign against "driving under the influence" has seen the number of deaths fall from more than 1,600 people In 1976 to 520 drink-drive fatalities in 2000.

It's not just your liver! Heavy drinking is thought to cause rapid damage to the brain.

Campaigners say that binge drinking needs to be tackled in a similar way and that education in the effects of alcohol should be integrated into the National Curriculum.

They also say that the emphasis needs to be firmly shifted away from "drinking until you are completely drunk" to one of more modest social consumption.

The Government has asked the Cabinet Office strategy unit to look at the issues around alcohol and the Department of Health is awaiting the outcome of this to help inform its policy.