Alcohol Consumption and Abuse among College Students: Alarming Rates among the Best and the Brightest.
Objective: This study examined alcohol consumption at two college campuses, a "dry" urban campus and a "wet" rural campus. We examined alcohol consumption as a function of students' membership in: Greek Organizations, NCAA Varsity Athletic teams, or as being Unaffiliated in these groups. Participants: Two hundred eighty eight college students at two different universities in the U.S were surveyed from February to April of 2013. Methods: Students were recruited through the head coaches of sports teams, the presidents of Greek organizations, and through the psychology departments, and emailed a Survey Monkey link. Results: Eighty five students reported alcohol dependence (severe alcohol abuse disorder in DSM 5), 43 reported alcohol abuse (moderate alcohol abuse in DSM 5), and 68 reported problematic drinking (mild alcohol abuse in DSM 5). Conclusions: "Dry" policies do not diminish problematic alcohol consumption and abuse, but are associated with substantial decreases in the onset of alcohol dependence. ********** Within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), alcohol is one of the most prevalent substances used in the United States, along with nicotine, cannabis and caffeine 1. DSM-5 estimates that 40% of individuals have experienced some type of adverse event related directly to alcohol consumption. (1) There are many risks and problems that result in the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol, most prominently nights when binging occurs. The most commonly reported adverse events of excessive drinking involve health and/or social problems including: motor-vehicle accidents, violence (physical and sexual), hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, and unwanted and/or unplanned pregnancies. (2) Those are troubling consequences, and even more troubling is that a recent NLAAA sponsored study estimated that approximately 1,700-college students die per year from unintentional alcohol-related injuries (mostly through motor vehicle accidents). Furthermore, approximately 5% of female college students reported having been victims of sexual assault and 75% of that 5% reported that they were under the influence of alcohol at the time of their assault. 3 Within those statistics, the age range that has the highest rate of alcohol consumption and adverse events are college students and individuals aged 18-24. (3) In 1993, Harvard University's School of Public Health published the results of their first College Alcohol Study. (4) This study and the three subsequent studies conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health examined alcohol consumption via the rates of binge drinking by college students. Binge drinking is defined by both the DSM-IV-TR and Wechsler and Isaac (5) as having 5 or more drinks in a single sitting for males and 4 or more drinks in a single sitting for females. Binge drinking has always thought to have been a problem, and these studies unveiled the magnitude of the problem. The Harvard College Alcohol Studies found that 40% (2 out of every 5) of students reported binge drinking within the last two weeks of taking the survey. Since that study, more time, research, and money has been spent studying and examining these startling trends. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their findings from 2010-2011 and found that alcoholic binge drinking accounted for more than 50% of the alcohol consumed by adults and 90% of the alcohol consumed by adolescents. (6) As startling as the high prevalence rate of binge drinking are the increasing prevalence rates of diagnosable alcohol abuse and dependence for college students. (7,8) Weschsler et al (4) reported that approximately 32% of college students meet the DSM-IV-TR criteria for alcohol abuse, and 6% meet the criteria for alcohol dependence. The results of this study indicate that alcohol consumption research among college students needs to include rates of abuse and dependence, as well rates of binge drinking. …