Alcohol Abuse

Students Win Top Prize for Alcohol Awareness Project

Posted by Drug Free in Alcohol Abuse on April 13th, 2012

Students from the Pascack Valley High School won the top prize in a recently concluded contest sponsored by the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

teen drinkingThree seniors from Pascack High became the recipients of the public service announcement award when a script that focused on the social impact of underage drinking authored by the students themselves became the inspiration for a 30-second commercial entitled “Proms and Alcohol Don’t Mix.”

It all started as an assignment for students Carlie Cattelona, Emily Considine, and Melissa Chayt who will all be graduating from middle school in a few weeks.  According to Considine, 17, they were just aiming to fulfill their requirements in class and that they never expected to win.

A crew from the Alcoholic Beverage Control visited the school and shot the whole commercial. It can be viewed on YouTube, on cable television stations, as well as in the division’s own website.

It was just last year that Pascack Valley won the same event. Today, their entry focused more on the social impact rather than on the aftermaths of teen drinking. It showed how social media and gossip around the campus can affect the lives of students.

“We wanted [to make the script] more realistic concerning the gossip, the rumors, the talking behind people’s backs,” Chayt added. “That happens every day [through talk and social networking], and those are the more common consequences.”

Director for the sponsoring agency Michael Halfacre explained that their mission in holding the competition is to put a stop on adolescent drinking. “Drinking underage can have dire consequences and this contest is the perfect way to start a dialogue among teenagers about the danger involved with alcohol.”

Possession of alcohol by a minor is considered a disorderly person’s offense which has a corresponding penalty and fine of at least $500 and a driver’s license suspension.

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Teenage Girls Increase Risks for Breast Diseases with Alcohol Use

Posted by Drug Free in Alcohol Abuse on April 10th, 2012

A new report suggests that teenage girls and young adult women who consume alcohol increase their risks of developing breast changes which could lead to cancer.

women drinkingThe team from the Siteman Cancer Center of Washington University School of Medicine followed more than 29,000 female subjects who regularly drank. Data gathered showed that for every ten grams of alcohol intake each day, the risks of having proliferative benign cancer disease increased by up to 15%; the illness is characterized by noncancerous cells and lesions.

Dr. Graham Colditz, a professor of surgery from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said that females who start drinking at very early ages increase their chances of acquiring breast diseases. “It’s clear that this study shows that late adolescent alcohol [drinking] drives up the risk of these preliminary benign changes in the breast.”

Dr. Colditz adds that the risks involved are significant enough, which is why women should start thinking about their drinking habits.

According to the American Cancer Society, the development of breast cancer has long been proven to be affected by an individual’s alcohol consumption. In fact, women who drink at least two to five servings of alcoholic drinks in a day end up increasing risks of breast cancer by up to 1.5%.

The study also proves that adolescent and young adulthood behaviors can affect one’s health later on in life. Dr. Jonathan Espenschied from the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in California supports such findings. This is why Dr. Espenchied regularly informs his teen and young adult patients about the dangers of early alcohol abuse.

“I would want them to be aware of alcohol consumption and what it can do, not just in terms of breast cancer,” he said. “They are young adults and they are going to make their own decision.”

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Increase in Teen Alcohol Abuse as School Year Ends

Posted by Drug Free in Alcohol Abuse on April 8th, 2012

The East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse is preparing as the school year is about to end. This means more opportunities for teen drinking as parties will be unstoppable in celebrating graduations, award ceremonies, and proms.

alcohol abuseIn Texas, previous studies have shown that alcohol is the top drug of choice among adolescents. Sonny Stephenson, coordinator for the substance abuse treatment for adolescents at the Texas Special Health Resources said that it is important to prevent teen drinking as it could pave the way for alcohol abuse in adult years. “Teenage drinking can lead to alcoholism in adulthood because you start building a tolerance.”

In the recently published survey results of the Archives of General Psychiatry, about 78% of the 10,000 teen study participants had already consumed alcohol and alarmingly, 15% of them satisfy the criteria for alcohol abuse. The average age that teens start to experiment with alcohol is at 14.

Stephenson adds that the said study only shows how rampant alcohol use among teens has become. It does not include the implications of early alcohol abuse, such as teen pregnancy, increase in teen high risks behaviors, spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and even birth defects.

“Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and people, especially teens, will begin to do things they wouldn’t without the presence of alcohol,” Stephenson said.

Yet teen drinking has proven to affect not only the teen drinker, but it also has an impact on the community. The 2011 Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation report claimed that in 2010, Texas residents lost $6 billion to teen drinking costs like medical care for pain and suffering linked to teenage alcohol abuse.

To address this problem, the East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse has scheduled a town hall meeting on the 26th of April in Longview to educate the whole community on teen drinking and minimize incidents especially in the nearing end of the school year.

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New Documentary Shows Real Score on Underage Binge Drinking

Posted by Drug Free in Alcohol Abuse on April 6th, 2012

In a new documentary called “Faded: Girls and Binge Drinking,” what really goes on when teens get into a drinking spree is clearly depicted, much more than what teens see on films and on television.

The documentary featured on ABC shows real teenage girls on alcohol abuse, from binge drinking up to the point that they pass out or get behind the wheels even if they had way too much to drink. An ABC News report earlier claimed that one in every four teenage girls indulge in binge drinking and that surprisingly, most binge drinkers are the perceived “good girls” as they try so hard to fit in. This is what inspired the producers of the said documentary.

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The ABC featured documentary focused on teenage girls, like 17-year-old Erin Thomas and 19-year-old Megan Helal from Texas, and the consequences they faced due to alcohol abuse. Helal died last month during a frat party held at Baylor University. At the event, Helal consumed between 10 to 17 drinks in a short span of two hours. According to Fox news, her parents are suing the fraternity for the untimely death of Megan.

Erin Thomas, on the other hand, was lucky enough to survive her experience of being arrested for underage drinking. Thomas admitted that on a recent party, she was able to consume four bottles of beer and about 10 to 13 shots of another alcoholic beverage. She and her boyfriend were later pulled over, with a DUI violation for her boyfriend and an arrest for her.

In the film, binge drinkers often started very early with alcohol experimentation. It was suggested that prevention measures should be taken to curb teenage drinking even while in middle school.

A study released by the Pediatrics society suggests that films with alcohol in their themes, such as “The Hangover” and “Project X,” are the most influential factors when teens decide to binge drink.

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Drug and Alcohol Abuse Growing Among US Teens

Posted by Drug Free in Alcohol Abuse, Drug Addiction on April 4th, 2012

Researchers at the Substance Abuse Services at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York have found out that more and more teens in the United States are experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and almost 15% of them qualify for substance abuse.

Bruce Goldman, director for the Substance Abuse Services, said that the new study depicts the truth that most kids these days get involved on drugs and alcohol issues at very early stages in their growth and development.

“Unfortunately, many youth are at risk of developing abuse and dependency problems due to factors including genetic predisposition, environmental availability, school difficulties, social/family problems and co-occurring psychiatric or behavioral disorders,” Goldman adds.

substance abuseThe research team from the University of Bordeaux in France gathered data from more than 10,000 teens in the United States with ages ranging from 13 to 18 years old. The proponents of the study uncovered that more than 78% of the teens had already tried alcoholic beverages while 47% of them consumed an average of 12 drinks in a year, and an alarming 15% of the total participants satisfied the criteria for substance abuse.

Drug abuse statistics were even higher with 81.4% of the teen respondents admit to having tried using illicit drugs, 47% confirmed their status of being drug users, and an astounding 16.4% considered as full-pledged drug abusers.

In the April issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, the team indicated the average age when kids start using drugs or alcohol on a regular basis is at age 14. “Because the early onset of substance use is a significant predictor of substance use behavior and disorders in a lifespan, the public health implications of the current findings are far-reaching.”

In a feature from Health Day, Goldman stressed the importance of getting parents and the whole community involved in fighting the battle against substance abuse. “Effective early intervention needs to be universally available to youth that are found to be using substance.”

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Cigarette, Alcohol and Diet Affect Progression of Multiple Sclerosis

Posted by Drug Free in Alcohol Abuse, Tobacco Abuse on April 2nd, 2012

A new study suggests that smoking and dietary factors can affect the progression of a milder form of multiple sclerosis in affected patients.

It was found out that from the 900 victims of “relapsing onset” multiple sclerosis (MS), patients who consumed fish, alcohol, and caffeine were less likely to complain of their disease and avoid difficulty in walking, which can be considered a very good sign of MS’s slow progression. On the other hand, patients who smoked were observed to go into the disability phase much earlier than their counterparts.

alcohol and cigarettesClinical neurologist and lead author of the study Dr. Marie D’hooghe said that it has long been a fact that caffeine, alcohol, and fish, when consumed on moderate levels, could protect MS patients by their anti-inflammatory properties that can control inflammation in the brain. This is an important factor in controlling relapsing MS.

The study was conducted with almost 1,400 participants aged 17 to 89 years old. They were given questionnaires that helped researchers determine their alcohol, coffee, tea, wine, and fish intake as well as their cigarette consumption.

Data gathered showed that relapsing MS progressed faster on patients that did not expose themselves to alcohol, taking 25 years before reaching the stage of immobility. Those who consumed at least one alcoholic drink a week reached the same stage 28 to 32 years later.

While the results seem to encourage alcohol intake, the study has yet to prove the direct relationship of alcohol or caffeine on the slow progression of MS, thus, this should not give patients the license to start drinking cocktails or have cups of coffee on a daily basis.

It only strengthened the fact that smoking is a risk factor for MS and fast tracks the onset of the disease.

MS affects 350,000 individuals in the United States and about 2.5 million in other parts of the world.

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