Though drinking can be a fun social pastime, the line between fun stupidity and dangerous behavior can be a dangerous one to cross. A UW “College Alcohol Study” found that nearly 40 percent of UW students say that in the last year, they’ve had too much to drink and experienced a “blackout,” a temporary condition during which one can function, but later has little or no memory of their actions or behavior during the blackout.
The Duke University Medical Center recently released a report that found approximately 51 percent of college students surveyed have experienced a blackout at least once in their life.
The report, based on a survey conducted by Dr. Aaron M. White to which 722 undergraduates responded, showed 9.4 percent of those who had consumed alcohol in the two weeks prior to the survey had experienced a blackout during that same period. In addition, 40 percent experienced a blackout at some point during the previous year. That included resulting consequences of alcohol-related blackouts, including poor choices such as driving while intoxicated, having unprotected or unwanted sexual intercourse, vandalism and other such behaviors uncharacteristic of someone sober.
Similar results were found in a UW “College Alcohol Study” that showed 37.4 percent surveyed admitted blacking out in the year prior to the survey.
Results from the Duke survey also suggest that women are more prone to memory blackouts caused by alcohol.
“Equivalent percentages of males and females experienced blackouts, despite the fact that males drank significantly more often and more heavily than females,” White wrote. White said that because males typically drink more, the fact that blackout percentage is nearly equal between men and women shows women to be “at greater risk than males for experiencing blackouts.”
“You can’t tell when someone is blacked out by any physical signs,” a certified Madison-area Alcohol and Other Drug Awareness (AODA) counselor said. “Your best bet is to watch how much they drink.”
The liver can only metabolize one ounce of alcohol per hour. A blackout may occur when someone drinks alcohol faster than it can be metabolized.
“Students drink to the point of blackout because they think that is what normal partying is,” the AODA counselor said.
The National Social Norms Resource Center (NSNRC) claims that a useful tool to curb binge-drinking on college campuses is to research realistic percentages of those who choose to drink and how much they choose to drink.
This type of “social norms marketing” aims to publicize accurate reflections of blackouts and binge-drinking among college students. Experts say students often assume alcohol consumption among their peers is average, when it may be higher than the national average. If national survey results show lower incidents of blackouts and binge-drinking than what students think is average, experts hope students will be less likely to binge-drink.
According to the NSNRC Web site, this method has proved to be effective since its introduction in the academic year ’89-’90 at Northern Illinois University.