Boozers' brain damage time bomb

GARETH ROSE ~ Scotsman.com ~ Fri 29 Jul 2005

BINGE drinkers in Edinburgh are suffering brain damage in their 30s because they have been abusing alcohol since their teens, a drink and drugs chief has warned.

Tom Wood, chairman of the Edinburgh Drugs and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT), said the severely debilitating and potentially fatal Korsakoff's Syndrome is now affecting people 20 years younger than previously.

And he warned the binge-drinking culture among young people in Edinburgh and across Scotland will lead to an increase in cases.

He said the lifestyles of some of the Capital's more excessive party people could be a ticking timebomb leading to brain damage, kidney failure, heart problems, and even death.

Mr Wood, a former deputy chief constable at Lothian and Borders police, said: "What we have is people getting into desperate problems with alcohol early in life. That is leading to an awful lot of people suffering from Korsakoff's Syndrome.

"Twenty years ago it was most commonly found in people over 50, now we are seeing it in people in their late 30s and early 40s. It shows alcohol abuse is getting worse in people at a younger age."

While the number of people suffering from Korsakoff's Syndrome, a form of dementia, is high in Edinburgh and in Scotland as a whole, it is worst in Glasgow. A study two years ago found it had the highest concentration of sufferers in the world.

The £2.3 million Ardencraig Care Home was opened in Castlemilk to treat up to 30 sufferers.

However, Mr Wood said he fears the number of sufferers in Edinburgh will keep rising if youngsters continue to drink heavily.

He added: "Many young teens are becoming heavily involved in alcohol. The undeniable consequence of this is that they will get into desperate medical condition in later life.

"If they start drinking in their early teens, develop an addiction to alcohol, and keep it up through their life at some point there's going to be a price to pay.

"That price could be their job or marriage, but the final payment will be their health."

Binge drinkers are not the only ones paying the price - their deteriorating health is also costing the NHS.

A British Medical Association report estimated that, at peak times, up to 70 per cent of all admissions to accident and emergency units in the UK are related to alcohol consumption.

The total cost of alcohol misuse to the health service is estimated to be in the region of £1.7 billion a year.

And Professor Peter Hayes, of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary liver unit, said people's drinking habits were showing no signs of easing up.

He said: "The increase in Korsakoff's Syndrome in Edinburgh has run parallel with an increase in liver disease.

"The number of people admitted to our hospital with liver problems has doubled in ten years.

"It has reached epidemic proportions and shows no sign of abating.

"And we are now seeing a lot more younger people. We used to just get men in their 50s, 60s and 70s, these days we're seeing more and more in their 20s.

"I've even heard of people in their teens with liver disease although I haven't come across any."

Prof Hayes said that the two most common forms of drink-related problems are cirrhosis of the liver and alcoholic hepatitis, which can lead to jaundice and liver failure.

"That can be fatal within a month," he said.

Typically people in their 50s and 60s who contract liver disease have histories of heavy drinking.

What is concerning officials is that somehow some younger people have managed to do the same amount of damage to their bodies in a shorter period of time.

PROF HAYES said: "The archetypal patient used to be men who had drunk a bottle of spirits a day for 20 years - that's the equivalent of 200 units a week.

"People are getting that kind of liver damage in their 20s - maybe because they started drinking when they were very young, maybe because they are more susceptible than previous generations, although I don't know why that might be."

The Scottish Executive is taking steps to attempt to reduce binge drinking which is also responsible for a lot of crime and disorder in city centres on weekend nights and puts a strain on police resources.

The Licensing (Scotland) Bill which is the first major overhaul of licensing law since 1976, is aimed at putting a stop to drinks promotions such as happy hours in pubs.

However, last month the Scottish Parliament's Local Government and Transport Committee said the Bill did not do enough to deal with irresponsible promotions from retailers.

And committee members also criticised proposals enabling pubs to open 24 hours a day, saying they were unconvinced the move was justified.

Prof Hayes said: "The fact is that alcohol has never been cheaper in relation to what young people can afford to spend.

"So if we want to reduce binge drinking we must make it socially unacceptable, like smoking has become - I can't see that happening.

"It's actually becoming more sociably acceptable for young women to drink more.

"And women are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol than men."

The shocking revelation comes as Libra, a service aimed at helping alcoholic women, appealed for more funding to reach weekend binge drinkers who are shunning help available to them.

The organisation is seeing more women than ever, but fears those in the greatest need of help are reluctant to come forward or even admit they have a problem.

That is part of the reason why Libra, which was launched 20 years ago to help women in Edinburgh with alcohol problems, is now busier than ever.

Jane Aldous, manager of the group which received funding from the DAAT, said: "We're more in demand than ever.

"We're providing counselling for about 200 women from Edinburgh and the Lothians a year.

"However it is hard to reach young people. We have tried to set up a younger women's group but we need more funding.

"We need to reach them because a lot of damage can be done by long-term binge drinking. The consequences can be life threatening.

"We are starting to see a small amount of women with liver damage, there are certainly some cases of brain damage, and some women have mental health problems because alcohol is a depressive drug."