By Linda Thrasybule
MyHealthNewsDaily

Young adults who engage in pre-drinking, also called pre-gaming, are more likely to drink heavily over the course of an evening than those who don't pre-drink, a new study from Switzerland suggests.

Pre-drinking involves drinking alcohol at home or in a public place, such as a park, before going to a party or bar. Drinkers may want to achieve a "buzz" or get drunk before going out, sometimes in an effort to save money by buying less at the bar.

The study also found that those who pre-drank were more likely to suffer risky or unfavorable consequences of drinking, such as blackouts, hangovers, unplanned substance abuse or unprotected sex.

Pre-drinking is a bigger problem in the U.S. because the legal drinking age is higher than in Switzerland, said Dr. Christopher Welsh, an addiction psychiatrist at University of Maryland who was not involved with the study.

"Young adults are drinking a lot more before they go out, knowing they won't be able to drink at the bar, or party or college event," Welsh said.

The study will be published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Pre-gaming doesn't reduce how much alcohol people drink
Some studies have reported that up to 75 percent of U.S. college students engage in pre-drinking. The studies also found that, on average, young men tend to have three to five drinks, while women have two to four drinks during a pre-drinking session.

The goal of saving money by pre-drinking doesn't usually work, Welsh said.

"People want to lower the cost of buying booze," he said. "But they tend to drink just as much as they would at the bar than if they didn't pre-drink."

So they end up spending even more money on alcohol than they initially intended, when taking into account money spent both at the bar and to drink at home.

"People should drink moderately — anywhere, anytime — and the same applies to pre-drinking," said study researcher, Florian Labhart, a research associate from the Addiction Info Switzerland Research Institute.

"It seems trivial, but having one or two drinks at the beginning of the night will still have an impact on your behavior by the end of the night," Labhart said.

In the study, 183 participants were assessed every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for five weeks. Participants received six text messages per evening, with a link to a brief questionnaire asking how much alcohol they had drunk and where they were drinking.

Researchers found that respondents were more likely to experience risky consequences on evenings when they pre-drank than on evenings when they drank only at a bar or club, or only at home. 

People who pre-drank consumed an average of seven drinks in an evening, while those who didn't pre-drink consumed only four.

Pre-drinking didn't reduce or replace the amount of alcohol people drank later in the evening, but instead increased their risk of suffering negative consequences caused by even more drinking, said Shannon Kenney, a social psychologist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who was not involved with the study.

Blackouts and hangovers were the most commonly reported consequences in the study. Respondents also engaged in substance abuse and unprotected sex.

Keeping track of your drinking
Kenney said that pre-gaming is such a popular behavior that it's unrealistic to think that young adults would stop.

So people who pre-drink should be "more mindful of pacing drinks, or eating before drinking, so they have food in their stomachs," she said.

She also recommended alternating drinking alcohol with drinking water throughout the evening.

"Early on, be aware of your internal bodily sensations," Kenney said. "You're drinking lots of alcohol, so you don't have time to assess your level of intoxication."

Welsh said parents should keep an eye on how much alcohol they keep at home.

"For high school kids, it's harder for them to get alcohol, so they’re going to drink their parent's stash before they go out," he said.

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People with tattoos drink more than their tattoo-less peers, a new study from France suggests.

The researchers asked nearly 3,000 young men and women as they were exiting bars on a Saturday night if they would take a breathalyzer test. Of those who agreed to take it, the researchers found that people with tattoos had consumed more alcohol than those without tattoos, the researchers said.

Previous studies have shown that tattooed individuals are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex, theft, violence and alcohol consumption, compared to people without tattoos.

The researchers suggest educators, parents and physicians consider tattoos and piercings as potential "markers" of drinking, using them to begin a conversation about alcohol consumption and other risky behaviors.

However, doctors should not stereotype individuals with tattoos as heavy drinkers, the researchers cautioned.

Clinicians should spend time "talking to them about safe tattooing, etc., and alcohol in general … not because they have tattoos or piercings but because they are in a high-risk age group," Myrna Armstrong, Professor Emerita at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, who was not involved in the study, said in a statement.

Previous studies have also shown those with only one tattoo have similar alcohol consumption habits as those with no tattoos, while those with seven or more tattoos are more likely to fall into the "high risk" group, Armstrong said.

The study is published in the July issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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By MyHealthNewsDaily Staff

The risk of being in a fatal car crash has grown for underage females who've been drinking, according to a new study.

In 2007, underage female drinkers had the same risk as underage male drinkers, whereas a decade prior, the risk for females was half that of males, according to the study.

The reasons for the increased risk for females are not clear, but it could be that young women are taking greater chances on the road, the researchers said.

"Young women who drink and drive may be behaving more like young men who drink and drive," study researcher Robert B. Voas, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Md., said in a statement.

Still, the total number of young men involved in fatal alcohol-related wrecks is greater, because men drink more, Voas said.

The study also showed that, overall, a person's risk of being killed or involved in a fatal crash rose with drivers' blood-alcohol levels, regardless of their age.

Compared with sober drivers the same age, 16- to 20-year-olds who had a blood-alcohol level between .02 percent and .049 percent had nearly triple the risk of being in a fatal crash, and nearly quadruple the risk of dying in a single-vehicle crash.

Another finding of concern was that the risk of being in a fatal car crash for sober male drivers between ages 16 and 20 doubled between 1996 and 2007.

While the exact reasons aren't clear, "we speculate that it may have a lot to do with distraction," said study researcher Eduardo Romano, also of the Pacific institute. "Sober kids are more at risk, and we think it may be related to texting and the other new technologies they are using so much."

The findings highlight the need for drunken-driving prevention education in school for both boys and girls, and for efforts to curb distracted driving.

The findings are based on information from a government reporting system on fatal traffic accidents nationwide. The researchers compared blood-alcohol information from nearly 6,900 fatal crashes in 2006 with information from about 6,800 U.S. drivers who were part of the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey.

The study is published in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

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About 17 percent of U.S. adults, or 38 million people, say they binge drink, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks for women, and five or more drinks for men, on one occasion.

Binge drinkers reported an average of four episodes a month, each consisting of eight drinks at most, according to the report, which is based on data gathered during a 2010 survey.

The biggest group of binge drinkers are young adults, with about 28 percent of people between ages 18 and 24 reporting binge drinking. Men are twice as likely as women to say they binge drink.

A 2009 survey showed that about 15 percent of U.S. adults binge drink. The apparent uptick in prevalence is likely due to the polling of more people with cellphones in the current report, the researchers said.

Binge drinkers are at risk for many health problems, including liver disease, certain cancers, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases and  pregnancies exposed to alcohol. They also are at increased risk of being in car accidents, and engaging in violent behavior.

"Binge drinking causes a wide range of health, social and economic problems, and this report confirms the problem is really widespread," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the CDC. "We need to work together to implement proven measures to reduce binge drinking at national, state and community levels."

Which state binges the most?
Drinking too much, and binge drinking, causes more than 80,000 deaths in the United States each year, making it the third leading preventable cause of death, according to the report. It was  responsible for more than $223.5 billion in economic costs  in 2006.

In the new report, the CDC analyzed data from a 2010 telephone survey on alcohol consumption. The survey involved about 458,000 U.S. adults who reported their drinking habits for the last 30 days.

Although the percentage of people reporting binge drinking was highest among young people, it was binge drinkers ages 65 and older who over-consumed the most often: this group reported an average of five to six episodes a month.

The state with the highest percentage of people reporting binge drinking was Wisconsin, with 25.6 percent. Those in Wisconsin also consumed the most alcohol during a given binge, at 9 drinks on an occasion. The frequency of binge drinking was lowest in New Jersey (3.6 times per month) and highest in Kentucky (about 6 times per month).

Utah and West Virginia had the lowest percentages of people reporting binge drinking, each with 10.9 percent.

The researchers noted the actual amount of binge drinking may be higher because people tend to admit to drinking less than they actually do.

Solutions
Proposed strategies to tackle binge drinking include limiting the number of alcohol retailers in a given area, holding alcohol retailers responsible for harm related to the sale of alcohol to minors and  increasing the price of booze.

Attention to adult binge drinking is important because adult behavior influences the behavior of children and adolescents, according to the CDC.

"Binge drinking by adults has a huge public health impact, and influences the drinking behavior of underage youth by the example it sets," said Pamela S. Hyde, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "We need to reduce binge drinking by adults to prevent the immediate and long-term effects it has on the health of adults and youth," Hyde said.

The report is published today (Jan. 10) in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

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