|
 “Blackout is associated with pretty severe intoxication,” said Dr.
Marc Schuckit, the study’s lead author from the University of
California, San Diego. It occurs when the blood alcohol level "is
about double what is legally drunk.”
“We found that (blackouts) were shockingly common” among the teens
in the survey, Schuckit told Reuters Health.
Although there are some variations among U.S. states, most set a
blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent as the legal limit. The
National Transportation Safety Board recommended lowering that level
to 0.05 percent, which is the cutoff in many European countries.
Schuckit believes teens, and popular culture, view blacking out as
funny. But it’s very serious, he said, adding that when blood
alcohol levels are high enough to cause blackouts, "people are very
likely to get into trouble.”
The 1,402 teens in the study, all of whom reported drinking when
surveyed at age 15, were surveyed again at ages 16, 18 and 19.
At age 15, 30 percent reported drinking to the point where they
could not remember what happened the next day. By age 19, about 74
percent had experienced an alcohol-related blackout.
There were four distinct drinking patterns, researchers found. About
5 percent of participants did not report any blackouts. In about 30
percent, blackouts increased rapidly as kids got older. In about 45
percent, blackouts slowly increased with age. And in about 20
percent, there was a steady rate of blackouts throughout the study.
“What is really important is the 'never had a blackout' group was
relatively uncommon, compared to the other groups,” Schuckit said.
Some students were more likely to report alcohol-related blackouts,
compared to other students.
[to top of second column] |
“The first was a surprise to me,” Schuckit said. “That is if you’re
female.”
His group also reports in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and
Experimental Research that drinking more, smoking, having fewer
inhibitions and having more friends thought to be drinking and using
drugs were all tied to an increased number of blackouts.
While Schuckit said these numbers may be less dramatic among U.S.
teens, “there’s no way I’m ever going to see a kid from (age) 14 on
without asking about their drinking pattern.”
If doctors do suspect a teen is on a dangerous path with drinking,
he said “what you do is as a clinician is a brief intervention.”
A brief intervention is a quick session to make a person think about
their drinking and giving them resources to drink more responsibly.
Parents, Schuckit said, should start a discussion about drinking.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Jky40q Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research, online December 16, 2014.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
