For many students, waking up on a Saturday morning to an apartment littered with empty bottles and cans is the mark of a good night, but university researchers said binge drinking just might be an illness that needs treating.
Researcher Harry June from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Balttimore has found two genes in humans that might be linked to the prevalence of binge drinking among adults. It’s a discovery he said could possibly lead to future treatments for a practice many students simply consider a part of the collegiate experience.
June, who has been studying the role genes play in alcohol consumption for 22 years, said the two linked genes seem to play a major role in excessive drinking among college students and older adults alike.
“For the first time, [the research] provides us with a new way of understanding excessive alcohol drinking,” June said. “We’re now able to say it’s possible that these two genes can be exploited to develop drugs.”
Although June said available drugs such as Revia and Campral only treat alcohol-related problems broadly, the research could lead to drugs targeted specifically at binge drinking — which is defined as bringing one’s blood alcohol content up to the legal state limit of 0.08 percent within two hours, which on average takes five drinks for men and four for women.
At this university, officials said the prevalence of overconsumption is actually much lower than many think. According to Amanda Long, the university’s substance abuse prevention programs coordinator, a 2009 university survey showed about 20 percent of university students reported excessive drinking behaviors.
But June said regardless of the number of binge drinkers, such practices are exceptionally dangerous for college students, who often don’t realize biological factors actually come into play.
Because of the social nature of overconsumption, June said students might not be interested in an anti-binge-drinking drug his research could potentially yield.
And Long said the desire to be treated for binge drinking would likely vary from student to student, if such a treatment were available.
“There are certainly students who realize they have a substance abuse problem and seek assistance, but there are also students who do not realize the way that alcohol is negatively impacting their lives,” Long wrote in an e-mail.
Student Affairs Assistant Vice President Warren Kelley, who spearheaded an on-campus alcohol summit in 2008, said while the broad student population might not realize the potential for alcohol addiction, he hoped students more pre-disposed to binge drinking would seek help.
Kelley added that college students are typically more vulnerable to the consequences of binge drinking, which he said can range from lagging academic performance to getting physically hurt or assaulted.
“Students work hard and want to relax and enjoy themselves and sometimes don’t know their limits, and that creates issues,” he said.
Many students weren’t surprised binge drinking could be defined as a medical issue that needs to be diagnosed and treated.
Freshman international business and marketing major Bryan Lazzaro said although drinking is a part of student life, he knows some people who will probably be considered alcoholics after leaving the confines of the campus — and other students agreed.
“I’ve heard certain people are more likely to become addicted to drinking, and you don’t really find out until you try it,” freshman criminology and criminal justice major Katie Chang said. “A lot of people binge drink on campus, so I’m sure a lot of us could develop that problem later in life, and I hope people would want to be treated for it.”
But others were certain it’s simply a wild chapter of the college experience.
“It’s just a social thing in college when you’re surrounded by people doing it,” freshman biology major Adrienne Denne said.
“Once you get out of college, you move on with your life.”
June said although college students were at risk for binge drinking because they tend to make more impulsive decisions, older adults shouldn’t be ruled out for treatment either.
“I think what needs to be brought out is binge drinking is a part of college life, and it’s a problem among college students but also among older adults as well,” June said. “It’s not something that should be viewed as a college problem; it should be viewed as a societal problem.”
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