Rapid Rise in child drinkers needing treatment
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rapid Rise in child drinkers needing treatment*
The number of under-18s in hospital for alcohol related illnesses has
risen sharply
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:24am GMT 05/11/2007
Britain's binge-drinking culture has reached alarming levels among
teenagers as new figures reveal a 40 per cent increase in the number of
youngsters treated for alcohol abuse in a year.
Children as young as 10 are being placed in rehabilitation programmes,
according to statistics from the Government's National Treatment Agency
(NTA), while the number of under-18s admitted to hospital for alcohol
related illnesses also shot up.
Health experts warn that the trend is encouraged by cheap drink
promotions and easy access to alcohol.
A spokesman for the charity Alcohol Concern, which is calling on the
drinks industry not to advertise on television before 9pm, said: "Young
people are starting to drink at ever earlier ages, and they are drinking
much more than their predecessors. Clearly this behaviour will, and has,
manifested itself in the rise of alcohol-related health problems. This
is indicative of a broader consumption of alcohol across the age ranges."
Figures show that the number of under-18s in alcohol treatment
programmes has risen from 4,781 in 2006 to 6,707 in 2007, a 40 per cent
increase. And the most significant jump has been among 12- to
14-year-olds, a 62 per cent rise from 592 to 953.
Thousands are also being treated in hospital for illnesses linked to
alcohol. Statistics show that 5,281 under-16s were hospitalised through
drink in 2005/6, compared with 3,870 in 1995/6.
Prof Roger Williams, director of the Institute for Hepatology at
University College London, warned that young drinkers are creating
problems for themselves, and the NHS, further down the line.
He said: "Many young people say that they drink and feel perfectly fine,
but they need to realise that the damage done by drinking is progressive.
"The number of under-18s admitted to hospital has gone up 15 per cent
over the past decade, and deaths from cirrhosis are rising in younger
age groups, with people in their 20s and 30s now being treated for liver
failure."
There is particular concern about the number of young girls drinking
excessively and requiring treatment. They now account for just under 60
per cent of all under-age hospital admissions for alcohol.
Prof Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said:
"We know girls' bodies are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol than
boys. Unless we can stop this heavy drinking culture among young girls,
we're more likely to see women with serious liver disease at a younger
age in the future."
But the Government insists that it has made a significant investment to
help Britain's estimated one million alcoholics — and particularly to
tackle the issue of underage drinkers. A spokesman for the NTA said the
40 per cent rise in youngsters receiving treatment for their problems
shows that the strategies are working. She said: "It may look alarming,
but this means more young people are getting access to treatment, and it
is important to say that not all these are alcoholics."
• They might give you wings, but mixing energy drinks — which typically
contain high levels of caffeine as well as stimulants such as taurine
and ginseng — with alcohol can leave a person flying too high.
A web-based survey of US college students has found that among those who
had drunk alcohol that month, the ones who had mixed it with energy
drinks (24 per cent of the total) were twice as likely to be hurt or
injured, twice as likely to require medical attention, and twice as
likely to travel with a drunk driver.