Excessive Alcohol Consumption Causing Blackouts Among College Coeds
Many colleges are seeing a rise in the number of students consuming high amounts of alcohol. The large amount of alcohol consumed by these students can result in blackouts causing them to have memory loss. These blackouts leave the student unable to remember certain events pertaining to situations involving their excessive drinking, according to the online report by Injury Prevention. The greater the number of blackouts, which are fueled by drinking, the greater their chances of having an injury in the future when under the effects of alcohol. These blackouts do not necessarily cause them to lose consciousness but research does show damage to areas of the nerve cells relating to memory recollection.
Authors of the study, report that about one of every three college students admit a blackout causing memory loss in the last year and of that amount, one of about 20 report periods of amnesia due to excessive drinking in the past week. The study also showed that women may drink less than men, but are just as likely to have the same drinking blackouts as their male counterparts. Almost 600,000 students around college campuses reported injuries in 2001 due to drinking excessive amounts in the United States. Just five years ago nearly 2,000 students were killed due to alcohol related injuries fueled by accidental drinking problems.
From 2004-2009 approximately 800 students working on their undergraduate and over 150 post grad students from five different universities throughout the U.S. were monitored and analyzed for a period of two years. They took part in the CHIPS program which stands for College Health Intervention Project Study. It evaluated the benefits of screenings and interventions led by doctors, regarding the amount and frequency of student drinking. Over 50% of students reported at least one, and sometimes more than one blackout that resulted in memory loss in the year prior to the study. The results showed that student health services should begin screenings for memory blackouts as a tool to help with prevention of alcohol-related injuries in colleges.
