Medical Matters: It’s time we faced up to the binge-drinking elephant in the room

Dr Ciara Kelly, a GP and the Operation Transformation medic, attracted some opprobrium recently for her remarks about the alcohol consumption of one of the programme's leaders.

In fact she was talking about all of us when she said: “As a doctor, I have a huge problem with how we Irish view and use alcohol. And on our national broadcaster’s flagship health show, I felt I had no option but to show my utter dismay at seeing one of our leaders go drinking. I felt that to not deal with the subject would have been irresponsible of me.”

Hear hear, Ciara: and for what it’s worth, here’s my tuppence worth on the subject. My particular beef is with the level of binge-drinking by third-level students: a situation I believe is getting worse despite public health efforts to address the problem. Let me illustrate with some examples I have come across recently.

Many foreign students come here for a semester of study under Erasmus and other exchange programmes. Some are still in their teens and, depending on their country of origin, may be quite naive in relation to alcohol when they arrive. US students may come from states where it is illegal to purchase alcohol until the age of 21. They arrive here and find the “get hammered” alcohol culture that is rife in Irish universities.

No recollection of events

In one case I am aware of, a taxi dropped a student, relatively early on a weekday night, at the halls of residence. The student was unconscious from severe alcohol poisoning. If a housemate hadn’t put them in the recovery position, there was every chance they would have aspirated on their own vomit. In fact, such was the severity of the case that a trip to the local emergency department for a stomach pump would have been the appropriate intervention. The next morning, the individual had absolutely no recollection of the events.

In an another example, an Irish student in an extreme state of inebriation arrived home and proceeded to have gratuitous sex with a partner on the floor of a shared apartment sitting room. Again the student had no recollection of events, until the reality of an unwanted pregnancy and worry about a sexually transmitted infection prompted a panicked visit to the local doctor.

Apparently, it is quite common for the current residents of student accommodation to receive bills from the local hospital addressed to last year’s occupants. Often referring to multiple separate attendances to the emergency department, most, if not all, of these payment demands relate to treatment for alcohol-induced injury, including stomach aspiration.

One of those who is trying his best to reverse this horrible trend is Dr Michael Byrne, head of the student health service at University College Cork. Just last month Byrne and his colleagues published research on the topic in the journal BMJ Open.

The study of some 2,275 undergraduates at UCC found that two- thirds of students reported dangerous levels of drinking. It found approximately 17 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women were consuming more than six units of alcohol at least four times a week and, in some cases, on a daily basis.

Binge-drinking is defined as an intake of more than six units of alcohol (three pints of beer) at one session. It is associated with adverse physical effects, which means a significant minority of undergraduates are self-harming at least four times a week. “The pattern and frequency of adverse consequences of alcohol consumption was broadly similar in men and women, though men were more likely to report getting into a fight or to have a ‘one-night stand’,” the researchers noted.

“Ah, sure won’t they grow out of it?” is a common response.

Well, they won’t if they have taken their own life as a result of their drinking, or their liver has failed in their early 30s.

It’s time we faced up to this parasite in our midst.

mhouston@irishtimes.com muirishouston.com