Binge drinking: an avoidable epidemic
Earnest Hemingway, the novelist, used to say he, "drank to make other people more interesting".
Today, binge drinking is a silent epidemic.
Often unrecognized, binge drinking is a serious issue among British and American young women.
In the US, nearly 14 million women binge drink about three times a month and each year nearly 1,400 American college students die from binge drinking.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, highlighted the rising tide of UK deaths from alcohol related liver disease. "We really have young people who are binge drinking and it is damaging their livers.” Liver disease costs the UK NHS £1 billion a year.
A hidden problem
In addition to causing liver disease, binge drinking also increases the chances of breast cancer, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy.
Researchers at University College London have recently reported that alcohol consumption could be much higher than previously thought, with more than three quarters of people in England drinking in excess of the recommended daily alcohol limit.
Since the beginning of 2010 more than 2,400 more girls than boys have been seen by hospitals because of alcohol. Suggesting that alcohol abuse appears to have a much greater immediate effect on women than men.
The ladette culture of binge drinking is not confined to young women. UK Department of Health figures show that in 2010 there were 110,128 alcohol related hospital admissions for women between 35 and 54. A switch to drinking at home has contributed to the problem of women increasingly drinking.
In February 2013 the debate over a minimum price for alcohol was reopened by a report by the Alcohol Health Alliance, a coalition of 70 health organisations and published by the University of Stirling. It recommends that a 50p minimum charge for a unit of alcohol is needed to end the "avoidable epidemic" of binge drinking deaths.
Dr Paul Southern, a consultant hepatologist at Bradford's Royal Infirmary Hospital in the UK, said that people in their 20s are dying from liver disease caused by binge drinking and children as young as 12 are falling prey to the “pocket money alcohol business.”
According to Dr Southern there is, “only one single effective deterrent (for binge drinking) and that is taxation.” While recognising the problem of binge drinking the UK government has not yet delivered a solution.
A cultural change
While supporting the call to increase the price of a unit of alcohol sold in supermarkets, Professor Dame Sally also suggests that, "We need a cultural change.”
Mobile Apps are now available for predicting alcohol abuse, using research-based questionnaires to help patients determine if they are at risk, while other more light-hearted Apps allow users to see the effect of alcohol abuse on their future appearance.
Innovative ideas to make people think twice, but with little research evidence available, several doctors have come out against such aids saying that they wouldn’t recommend such Apps without empirical evidence in place to support their effectiveness.
In such settings is scientific medicine holding back opportunities for mHealth?
