by Aimee Keenan-Greene

A new study is published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research says binge drinking can affect the brains, specifically the memory, of teen girls because young women's brains develop earlier than men's.

Binge drinking teens could also be putting themselves at a higher risk for adult mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, according to a Loyola University Health System researchers report last year.

Binge drinking was defined as a female having at least four drinks or a male having at least five drinks on one occasion. Binge drinking typically begins around age 13 and peaks between ages 18 and 22. Thirty-six percent of youths ages 18 to 20 reported at least one binge-drinking episode during the past 30 days, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 

Alcohol could be more dangerous than illegal drugs ,like crack and heroin, according to a study in the British medical journal Lancet.

British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, and ranked them based on how destructive they were to both the individual and society.

Specifically, researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison costs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say: 

  • Approximately 92% of U.S. adults who drink excessively report binge drinking in the past 30 days.
  • Although college students commonly binge drink, 70% of binge drinking episodes involve adults age 26 years and older.
  • The prevalence of binge drinking among men is higher than women.
  • Binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than non-binge drinkers.
  • About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.
  • About 75% of the alcohol consumed by adults in the United States is in the form of binge drinks.
  • The proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18- to 20-year-old group (51%)

Binge drinking is associated with car crashes, falls, burns, drowning, firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence, alcohol poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, children born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, high blood pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases, liver disease, neurological damage, sexual dysfunction and poor control of diabetes.