The nationwide problem of binge drinking shows no sign of slowing down and unforeseen health consequences are often overlooked.

Very little research has been carried out or conducted to see what the potential impact of 33% of 18-25 year olds who fall under the category of binge drinking within government guidelines.

Pauline Ward, media spokesperson for Preston’s Addiction Dependency Services
who regularly sees concerned parents of young people who binge drink, said : " I don’t think it’s anything new to our country or culture, I think it’s now being more recognised and identified with the health problems it causes. Based on that, the government are trying to raise awareness though campaigns such as Know Your Limit."


Binge drinking can cause many types of illnesses in both the long and short term such as symptoms of being hung-over, vomiting, temporary nervous system damage and loss of work. Long-term affects of binging can include liver diseases including cirrhosis of the liver, fatty liver. Dementia and even brain damage are also potential effects of binge drinking.


“When we refer to binge drinking there are different types. The obvious 18-25 year old drinkers who perceive that they are drinking in a social setting. The amount of units that they are consuming in such a short period of time may have an adverse affect on their health. The other type of binge drinker is the middle aged wine drinker who will sit at home drinking a bottle of wine a night, not even realising that they are often quadrupling the government guidelines on drinking limits when even doubling them is classed as binge drinking. The other class of binge drinking is the chronic dependent.
They will often go on around the clock week long binging sessions, often
locking themselves away from their normal outside life only managing to bring it back to a safe level through either detoxification or gradually reducing the amount of drinking to a safe level,” Pauline said.

Based on this current knowledge of binge types, the problems heath services are facing is how the health of the individuals will be affected. It is thought that the 18-25 group may present a potential NHS time bomb, with the latter group being of more of an immediate concern to the health service.

“The first problem with the 18-25 year old group is that falling in the street and injury
through violence is a common occurrence seen nationwide throughout hospitals. Using alcohol to socialise in this way is also an often over-looked psychologicalo implication as social tools and skills are never learned if alcohol is entirely replied upon to stimulate conversation,” Pauline said.


The government’s recommended intake of alcohol in units a week works out at around 2-3 drinks per session. This doesn’t however fit in with our
glamoristion of drinking within the UK culture.

We tend to be brought up in an environment as alcohol being served at celebrated occasions as a stimulus from a very young age through the media. We perhaps need to change our attitude to make us similar to the attitude in France, Spain and other cultures such as South America where alcohol is not misused in such as way.

“There’s a cross-over between binge drinking and alcoholism that I’ve noticed, and it’s an increasing problem I’ve seen occurring over the last 16 years of working here.
Drinking in such a way could reduce life expectancy by 10 years or more and we really need to change out attitude towards alcohol through education from a young age, Pauline added.

Binge drinking affects Police in Preston

Binge drinking is causing a huge problem for the police right across the country and for Preston.

Most post police officers would express their frustrations in many ways as the police are looked upon to solve these problems when in fact they are social problems left for the police to deal with.

Andy Bradbury, , said: "Certainly I can talk in terms what goes on in Thursdays , Fridays and Saturdays evenings. There’s a great deal of police time taken in managing the effects and after effects of alcohol.

"We need to look at why children and young people in France, Spain for example are far more responsible in the way they use alcohol. In this country when we have 18th or 21st birthdays where the situation is based around drinking to get drunk rather than a more relaxed social attitude towards alcohol and socialising."


Andy said that the message to young people binge drinking having a potentially detrimental impact on young people’s heath is clear, however it’s hard to get the message across because of an attitude of them feeling immune from any health problems which may appear later on in life as a result of binging.

Police are faced with two groups of binge drinkers, and national health statistics confirm this with over 160 youths under the age of 16 being admitted A&Es across Lancashire and over 3,500 people over the age of 18 being hospitalised due to excessive alcohol intake.

Andy said: "As a police force, we’re dealing with three groups here. Teenagers from 13 upwards to maybe 17 who drink alcohol in public places, to the second group who are young people and students aged 18 to early 20s who often fall victim to crime and are vulnerable to injury and attacks on the way home from a night out."

A major factor in Preston, as with many other similar cities, is the catchment areas of takeaways and food outlets placed around the high density of clubs and bars on Church street. The police have to deal with alcohol fuelled fights caused by the lack of queing structure and are working with the many takeaways and food outlets to redress this issue.

Andy said supermarkets and cheaply priced drinks are often blamed for causing prices of drinks to plummet, with bars and clubs offering promotions and happy hours in competition.
“We work very closely with pubs and clubs who are generally responsible buy I think the problem they face Is the one of competitive nature of supermarkets and off licenses selling cheaper alcohol. A lot of pubs and clubs are seeing people coming into their premises having gotten drunk of cheap alcohol from super markets and are having to face closure,” he said.

“We quite readily accept that if you’re talking about a football ground which requires policing because of the entertainment they present, football grounds are expected to make a contribution towards the cost of policing the problem,” Andy added.

The cause isn’t true of clubs and pubs making contributions towards the extraneous cost and stretch of the police forces. Diverted police attention often sees serious crimes such as burglaries and muggings having to wait. Andy said that this problem is costing the tax payer in Preston alone in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds a year.