Researchers visited 80 bars and restaurants in Northern California last year and found that glasses of wine and spirits are often 50 percent larger than the "standard" size used in guidelines. That means people who follow recommendations about avoiding more than one drink an hour may be getting more booze than they bargained for, the study found.
Unfortunately, on many campuses, that big-screen depiction might not be far from reality.
Mental health and substance abuse professionals are growing increasingly concerned that today's college students have pushed partying to the point of dangerous alcohol abuse, or worse.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that about 1,700 college students die each year due to alcohol related injuries. Other studies put the number of students who drive under the influence of alcohol at more than two million a year. More telling, a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that 18 percent — nearly one out of five — of U.S. college students suffered clinically significant alcohol-related problems.
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The grim neurology of teenage drinking
The New York Times July 4, 2006
By Katy Butler
"Today, public health experts regularly warn that teenage drinkers run greatly increased risks of involvement in car accidents, fights and messy scenes in Cancún."
"Mounting research suggests that alcohol causes more damage to the developing brains of teenagers than was previously thought, injuring them significantly more than it does adult brains. The findings, though preliminary, have demolished the assumption that people can drink heavily for years before causing themselves significant neurological injury..."
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