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Binge drinking or heavy episodic drinking is a modern epithet for drinking alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time.〔 It is a kind of purposeful drinking style that is popular in several countries worldwide, and overlaps somewhat with social drinking since it is often done in groups. The degree of intoxication, however, varies between and within various cultures that engage in this practice. A binge on alcohol can occur over hours, last up to several days, or in the event of extended abuse, even weeks. Due to the long-term effects of alcohol misuse, binge drinking is considered to be a major public health issue.〔 Binge drinking is associated with a profound social harm, economic costs as well as increased disease burden. Binge drinking is more common in males, during adolescence and young adulthood. Heavy regular binge drinking is associated with adverse effects on neurologic, cardiac, gastrointestinal, hematologic, immune, musculoskeletal organ systems as well as increasing the risk of alcohol induced psychiatric disorders. A US-based review of the literature found that up to one-third of adolescents binge-drink, with six percent reaching the threshold of having an alcohol-related substance use disorder. Approximately one in 25 women binge-drinks during pregnancy, which can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.〔 Binge drinking during adolescence is associated with traffic accidents and other types of accidents, violent behavior as well as suicide. The more often a child or adolescent binge drinks and the younger they are the more likely that they will develop an alcohol use disorder including alcoholism. A large number of adolescents who binge-drink also consume other psychotropic substances.〔 Binge drinking causes brain damage faster and more severely than chronic drinking (alcoholism). The neurotoxic insults are due to very large amounts of glutamate which are released and over-stimulate the brain as a binge finishes. This results in excitotoxicity, a process which damages or kills neurons (brain cells).〔 Each binge drinking episode immediately insults the brain; repeat episodes result in accumulating harm. The developing adolescent brain is thought to be particularly susceptible to the neurotoxic effects of binge drinking, with some evidence of brain damage occurring from drinking more than 10 or 11 drinks once or twice per month.〔 ==Definition== Binge drinking is defined as episodic excessive drinking. There is currently no worldwide consensus on how many drinks constitute a "binge", but in the United States, the term is often taken to mean consuming five or more standard drinks (male), or four or more drinks (female), over a 2-hour period. One definition states that 5 drinks for men and 4 drinks for women must be consumed on one occasion at least once in a two-week period for it to be classed as binge drinking. This is colloquially known as the "5/4 definition", and depending on the source, the timeframe can vary. In the United Kingdom, binge drinking is defined as drinking more than twice the daily limit, that is, drinking eight units or more for men or six units or more for women (roughly equivalent to five or four American standard drinks, respectively). In Australia, binge drinking is also known as risky single occasion drinking (RSOD)〔 and can be classified by drinking seven or more standard drinks for males and 5 or more standard drinks for females within a single day. When BEACH (Bettering the Evaluation of care and health) conducted a study which gathered information of people over the age of 18, BEACH defined binge drinking as those who consumed six or more standard drinks on one occasion whether that be weekly or monthly. The above definition is not without controversy since it does not take into account the time period over which the drinking occurs or the size of the person drinking. A person could be defined as a binge drinker even if he or she never becomes intoxicated. The term, however, has succeeded in drawing public awareness to the problem of excess drinking. Other, less common definitions are based on blood alcohol concentration (BAC). For example, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines the term "binge drinking" as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. Whatever the numerical definition used, heavy drinking or rapid consumption over a short period of time with the intention of becoming intoxicated is often implied when the term is used colloquially, since four or five drinks consumed over the course of a whole day and as an accompaniment to meals will not have the same effects as the same amount consumed over a couple of hours on an empty stomach. In the United States, sometimes the term "extreme drinking" or "industrial-strength bingeing" is used to describe a more severe form of (single-evening) binge drinking; it is often defined as ten or more standard American drinks on a single occasion (sometimes as eight drinks for women).〔Hitti, M. (2006, 5 24). 'Extreme Drinking,' Alcohol Abuse Common Among College Students. Retrieved 3 4, 2010, from Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196857,00.html〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=From Binge Drinking to 'Extreme Drinking' )〕 If done over 2 to 3 hours, a typical adult would have a peak BAC of at least 0.20%. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「binge drinking」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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