
By Staff Writer
Underage and excessive drinking by high school and college students has been recognized as a problem for a long time, but recent studies have confirmed that rates of binge drinking are continuing to rise.
Fox news channel KDVR reports that binge drinking is consuming five or more drinks in a row for men, and four or more drinks in a row for women. However, this definition does not take into account the length of time over which the alcohol is consumed or a person's body weight.
A new definition defines binge drinking as "a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 percent or above," which typically occurs within a two-hour window of excessive drinking.
Underage drinkers typically tend to drink on fewer occasions than their older peers but have more alcohol-related problems than students of legal drinking age, the news source reports.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that mental health problems, including depression, developmental lags, apathy, withdrawal and other psychosocial dysfunctions, are frequently linked to substance abuse among adolescents.