Drinking data show harsh reality of binge boozing by young and old

"It's almost a hidden epidemic." That comes from a worried Raymond Anton, M.D., an alcohol abuse treatment and research specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina. He’s referring to a recent study described in JAMA Psychiatry, showing the rates of alcohol use, high-risk drinking and alcohol use disorder all rose sharply between 2001 and 2013.

“Even among young people, the rates of binge drinking are going up, and the rates of women drinking heavily are more like men than they ever were, accelerating. Older people, too,” Anton says.

“Everybody sees it all the time. Everybody has a relative, friend or business associate who has an alcohol problem, and for the most part, they don’t want to talk about it. The opiate epidemic has gotten a lot more attention. But if you take the number of alcohol related deaths, it’s way more than deaths from opiates, and people aren’t talking about it.”

He’s trying to change that by not only pointing out the problem but also highlighting the growing array of personalized solutions for people who want to cut back on or stop drinking alcohol.

The statistics from the JAMA study, which looked at the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, are pretty stunning. Comparing drinking data from 2001 and 2002 with data from 2012 and 2013:

• Alcohol use rose by about 11 percent

• High risk drinking climbed by almost 30 percent

• The rate of alcohol use disorder jumped more than 49 percent 

High risk for women was four or more drinks a day at least once a week, and for men it was five or more drinks a day at least once a week. To qualify as having alcohol use disorder, a person has to meet certain criteria spelled out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

So why were there such big increases? There’s no single answer.

The researchers behind the study speculated that widening wealth inequality and race may be factors, leading to stress and discrimination for some people, triggering more drinking.  

Anton points to other possible factors. “As baby boomers retire, they have more time for cocktail parties and might act like adolescents again. Women have undergone major changes, too, in recent decades. As they seek equality across a spectrum of social and economic life, alcohol consumption seems to tag along for some of them.”