Are adolescents who attend schools with a high level of alcohol use and binge drinking more likely to use alcohol and binge drink themselves? This paper analyzes peer effects in adolescent drinking based on a survey of 13,070 adolescents conducted in Sweden in 2005. The empirical analysis uses a multi-level logistic model to account for non-observable heterogeneity between the schools and the r...

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship between unintended pregnancy resulting in a live birth and binge drinking (having 5 or more alcoholic beverages on 1 occasion) in the 3 months before pregnancy (the preconception period) and to characterize women who are of childbearing age and binge drink. METHODS A case-control study was conducted of women with pregnancies that resulted in a live birth, ...

Many university students engage in risky alcohol consumption behaviour during their stay at university. So far, however, most studies have relied on cross-sectional surveys and paid little attention to the role of social ties. University students, however, are socially connected, so it is likely that their alcohol consumption behaviour is also connected. We hypothesized that university students...

Binge drinking, frequently referred to clinically as problem or hazardous drinking, is a pattern of excessive alcohol intake characterized by blood alcohol levels ≥0.08 g% within a 2-h period. Here, we show that overexpression of α1 subunits of the GABA(A) receptor contributes to binge drinking, and further document that this involvement is related to the neuroanatomical localization of α1 rece...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To test whether college youth smoking risks are independently associated with community patterns of alcohol availability and control. DESIGN Hierarchical multilevel multivariable modelling of cross sectional survey data. Outcomes included self reported current (past 30 day) cigarette smoking and heavy episodic (binge) drinking. SETTING 120 nationally representative US colleg...

Heavy episodic drinking early in adolescence is associated with increased risk of addiction and other stress-related disorders later in life. This suggests that adolescent alcohol abuse is an early marker of innate vulnerability and/or binge exposure impacts the developing brain to increase vulnerability to these disorders in adulthood. Animal models are ideal for clarifying the relationship be...

Young adult (N = 96) university students who varied in their binge drinking history were assessed by electroencephalography (EEG) recording during passive viewing. Groups consisted of male and female non-binge drinkers (>1 to 5/4 drinks/ounces in under two hours), low-binge drinkers (5/4-7/6 drinks/ounces in under two hours), and high-binge drinkers (>or= 10 drinks/ounces in under two hours), w...

OBJECTIVE To examine gender-specific relationships between alcohol drinking patterns (average drinking frequency, typical drinking quantity and frequency of binge drinking) and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in the Korean population. DESIGN Cross-sectional study using complex sampling design analyses. SETTING The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examinatio...

Despite its ubiquity, the term "Binge" drinking has been controversial. Among other things, the grouping of drinkers into a single risk category based on a relatively low threshold may not capture adequately the nature of problem drinking behaviors. The present study is an initial examination of the utility of delineating heavy drinkers into three groups; those who typically drink below the tra...

OBJECTIVES In the UK, men's alcohol-related morbidity and mortality still greatly exceeds women's, despite an increase in women's alcohol consumption in recent decades. New UK alcohol guidelines introduce gender-neutral low-risk alcohol consumption guidance. This study explores how UK newspaper and online news represent women's and men's 'binge' drinking to identify opportunities to better alig...