The Human Cost of Alcohol Abuse
A recent report from the British Medical Association, entitled The Human Cost of Alcohol Misuse tried to show the full picture of the many serious health consequences of alcohol abuse. These statistics are indicative of a worldwide issue, as you’ll see by the comparative info from the U.S..
- In the last year 42,430 patients were discharged from Scotland’s hospitals for alcohol related conditions. In 2006, an estimated 111,200 doctor’s appointments in Scotland were for ultimately because of alcohol misuse. (In the U.S. Nearly 14 million Americans meet diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders.)
- There has been a 400% increase in the number of people with alcoholic liver disease since 1996. Dr Andrew Thomson, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s UK Board of Science, says “It is not infrequent to find patients with fatty liver in their 30s and 40s, and when asked about previous alcohol consumption often describe heavy or binge drinking when a student in their 20s.”
- Alcohol kills six people in Scotland every day, adding up to be over 2,000 deaths per year. (More than 100,000 U.S. deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. Direct and indirect causes of death include drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, falls, cancer, and stroke.)
Dr Peter Terry, the Chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland says, “The health effects of alcohol misuse are serious and severe and are related to more than 60 medical conditions.”
Dr Andrew Thomson, explained further, “As a GP I see many families torn apart by alcohol problems…. Alcohol often plays a major part in domestic violence and the breakdown of relationships.” He went on to say, “We continue to see children as young as 13 or 14 in our community hospital unconscious as a consequence of alcohol which has become the obligatory social lubricant for almost every event. A 15-year-old boy fell unconscious at a party, he spent the next 24 hours in intensive care with severe acute alcohol poisoning. The cost of all of this on the individuals concerned and on friends and families that surround them are incalculable. ”
Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year.
But help is available, regardless of age or situation, at Transitions Recovery.
