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Scientists have published findings in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal which point to a genetic variation that can lead to an increase in binge drinking in teens. The gene known as RASGRF-2 plays a crucial role in making people more likely to be heavy drinkers. People drinking alcohol experience activation of the brain’s dopamine system, giving them feelings of pleasure and reward.  The research suggests that people with a genetic variation on the RASGRF-2 gene release more dopamine with anticipation of a reward, such as alcohol.

Brain scans of 663 14-year old boys found that those with variations in the RASGRAF-2 gene have more activity in an area of the brain closely linked to the release of dopamine. In order to confirm the findings, the same teens were analyzed at age 16 and those with the gene variation drank more often than those without it. This insight into teens has the potential for greater risk analysis and mitigation of alcohol abuse. However, if parents and educators are aware of a teenager’s susceptibility but not legally able to facilitate a conversation surrounding its risks, they are at a loss for helping him or her overcome the genetic predisposition.

Choose Responsibility Blog

Recognizing the binge drinking epidemic on college campuses throughout the state, the Vermont Department of Health recently sponsored a symposium to address the issue. The symposium included subject matter experts and offered educators the opportunity to share best practices. Vermont’s reported binge drinking and marijuana use rates (at 13 of the state’s colleges) are higher than the national average. 76% of students drink and 53% of students binge drink while 38% reported using marijuana.

Vermont’s commissioner of health, Dr. Harry Chen, noted that Vermont ranks in the top five states for binge drinking. He also conceded that the issue is difficult to tackle, “There’s no way that we’re going to eliminate college drinking…But the state and colleges can encourage [students] to be responsible so they don’t drink and drive, rely on binge drinking to enjoy themselves and put themselves at risk of violence, suicide and sexual assaults.” Chen, and the symposium itself, demonstrate a practical approach to curtailing binge drinking, yet the occasion and his comments indicate that moving the needle will be difficult in a culture where “drinking education” is solely peer-to-peer.

Choose Responsibility Blog

A study recently completed at the University of Georgia reported that “found that first-year female college students who drank four or more alcoholic drinks in one day at the start of the study were 33 percent more likely to be victims of a sexual assault in the following months.”

Sarah Fischer, author of the study, noted that women who binge drink are in greater danger of sexual assault, which is a harm associated with binge drinking; “The main take-home point is that binge drinking at the start of the year increases risk for freshmen college women for later sexual assault during their first year of college.”

This study may lead to other research on the relationship between alcohol and unwanted sexual activity and the social context in which both occur.

Choose Responsibility Blog

Lafayette College continues to struggle with the loss of 19 year old Everett Glenn, who died during the weekend after drinking excessively on his birthday.

WFMZ news noted that while the entire Lafayette community continues to mourn this loss, the tragedy has led students to reconsider the ramifications of their drinking. Tanner Flanigan said, “I would be surprised if we have an ‘All-College Day’ again, which is too bad…With something like this happening we kinda need to reevaluate the whole binge drinking situation.”

Perhaps this tragedy will compel college students to re-evalute their responsibility and to press their congressmen to re-evaluate MLDA21.

Choose Responsibility Blog

We’re happy to announce that students at Texas Christian University have launched a new campaign there to prevent college binge drinking.

Their campaign, VITALS, stands for Vomiting, Incoherence, Temperature, Absence of color, Low breathing and Seizure. The campaign’s goal to educate fellow TCU students on the symptoms of alcohol poisoning and what needs to be done in situations where alcohol poisoning is afflicting their peers. Their campaign is based on the work done by students in the 2009 NSAC Competition, sponsored by The Century Council. After the competition ended, we decided to give students the funds to actually implement the campaign that they planned. Previous campaigns have been conducted at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, University of Alabama, University of Ohio, and George Washington University (in progress).

We look forward to seeing the work that the VITALS campaign comes up with. To read more about the campaign, check out the press release hosted on TCU’s website.

Century Council Blog

Building on our previous college binge drinking research, The Century Council conducted follow-up research among two of the college drinker types we identified last year. These students’ unique perspective will help address the issue of dangerous overconsumption on college campuses. The research explored the drinking behaviors of “Malleable Moderates” and “Savvy Sippers” as well as their social networks and how they impact drinking behaviors and attitudes.

For clarity’s sake, our definition of “social networks” means trusted groups of friends such as college friends, high school friends, etc. and not “social networks” as defined by online sites such as Facebook. Recently the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) released a report regarding the impact of social networking sites on a teen’s decision to drink, smoke, and use drugs. Perhaps the assumption that images seen on social networking sites encourage poor decision making should be questioned. We think the better course of action is to focus on addressing the behavioral changes, not blame the mechanism by which photos and videos are shared.

Highlights from the as yet unreleased findings confirmed that half of college students begin their weekends on Thursday. Going out to dinner, going to bars, going to parties, and just drinking alcohol are the primary weekend activities (Thursday, Friday and Saturday); these plans are not premeditated but rather made day of and easily changed. Students are, however, more likely to make decisions about how much they plan to drink before going out, and do so on their own rather than with their group.

There is good news for parents who might have just dropped off their college son or daughter: they’re still studying (usually between Sunday and Wednesday,) passing exams, and getting good grades. Completing papers and projects are considered very important goals in their typical week.

When it comes to socializing, students are making their connections prior to arriving on campus or early in their college careers. They identify their key and closest social groups as friends from their:

• Place of residence (52%);
• Significant others (40%);
• Hometown (29%).

Not surprisingly, groups with whom the students feel closest to and with whom they are most likely to socialize are also the groups they drink with most often. A majority of students report their drinking behavior does not really change from group to group, but a plurality do report they sometimes drink more when they are with certain friends.

We look forward to sharing the full results later this fall. In the meantime, be sure to check out all the exciting student-generated work going on at college campus to reduce overconsumption.

You Know. Be There. [Facebook]

Century Council Blog

The Wall-Street Journal has focused in on alcohol abuse lately. Last week they published an article focusing on the factors leading to a person’s BAC. This week they’re focusing on the challenges that students face, given the culture of college binge drinking.

The challenges of college life can be daunting to students who decide to abstain from alcohol – but they’re not impossible. Many colleges and universities offer substance-free dorms to their students, as well as programs and activities that help ensure alcohol needn’t be a part of college life.

“While many college students believe alcohol is an easy gateway to meeting people, studies have shown that this is not representative of the typical college experience.” In 2010, 63% of college students queried said they don’t binge drink. 41% said they hadn’t gotten drunk in the last month, and 31% said they hadn’t had any alcohol at all in the past month.

As About.com points out, in order to break the culture of college binge drinking, we must dispel the myth that it’s not only normal but expected that college students binge drink. That’s a lofty goal, but one that’s vitally important to the physical and mental health of college students across the country.

Century Council Blog

One problem that we’ve devoted a lot of focus to recently is college binge drinking. It represents a significant public health and safety problem for our country. Not only does college binge drinking severely inhibit academic progress, as most recently linked to in this study, but it also contributes to the death and injury of many college students across the nation, every year.

It’s an intractable problem. There a culture of binge drinking on many college campuses, sustained by the false notion that college and alcohol are inextricably tied, and that one can’t have a social life without alcohol.

Of course, this simply isn’t true – and as our student campaigns demonstrated, student alcohol abuse often impairs a social life far more than it enables it. Check out the work that these student campaigns did – and decide for yourself.

[LessThanUThink]

[TheOtherHangover]

Century Council Blog

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control released a new report – “CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2011″ – which sheds light on disparities between racial groups on a wide variety of health issues. The report touched on binge drinking, and noted that binge drinking is highest in the 18-24 age cohort:

“Binge drinking prevalence decreased with increasing age, from 25.6% among respondents aged 18–24 years to 3.8% among respondents aged ≥65 years…The average largest number of drinks consumed by binge drinkers decreased with increasing age, from 9.1 among adults aged 18–24 years to 5.5 among those aged ≥65 years.”

Donald McNeil offered a summary of the report’s findings for the New York Times:

“Binge drinking — defined as five drinks at a sitting for men and four for women — is increasing. In a switch from the norm for health problems, it is more common among the better-educated and more affluent, including college students. But poor people, and especially American Indians, drink much more heavily when on binges.”

The new report’s findings come from an analysis of the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The full CDC report is available here.

Choose Responsibility Blog

‘Tis the season for holiday parties. Unfortunately happy occasions such as office parties and outings with friends can be ruined by those who overconsume.

The NY City Department of Health is taking an extra step this year to raise awareness of this issue and remind New Yorkers to be responsible with their alcohol consumption. The new campaign focuses on excessive drinking and features graphic ads that will be placed in subways to encourage adults to “Stop drinking while you’re still thinking.”

The NY City Department of Health’s campaign delivers messages similar to campaigns presented to The Century Council at the National Student Advertising Competition in 2009. Students developed anti-binge drinking messaging targeting their peers; the campaigns were compelling in an effort to change behavior and stop the dangerous overconsumption of alcohol on our nation’s campuses.

Additional college binge drinking research conducted by The Century Council and presented at the Higher Ed Conference in October demonstrated in addressing this topic the messages must be realistic and help individuals create a better understanding of their own capacity, limits and consequences to get them to rethink their behavior.

The Century Council applauds the New York City Department of Health for making this call to action and wishes it great success on its holiday season campaign against dangerous overconsumption.

Century Council Blog