Drinking patterns, dependency and life-time drinking history in alcohol-related liver disease.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the hypothesis that increases in UK liver deaths are a result of episodic or binge drinking as opposed to regular harmful drinking.


METHODS
A prospective survey of consecutive in-patients and out-patients.


METHODS
The liver unit of a teaching hospital in the South of England.


METHODS
A total of 234 consecutive in-patients and out-patients between October 2007 and March 2008.


METHODS
Face-to-face interviews, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, 7-day drinking diary, Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire, Lifetime Drinking History and liver assessment.


RESULTS
Of the 234 subjects, 106 had alcohol as a major contributing factor (alcoholic liver disease: ALD), 80 of whom had evidence of cirrhosis or progressive fibrosis. Of these subjects, 57 (71%) drank on a daily basis; only 10 subjects (13%) drank on fewer than 4 days of the week--of these, five had stopped drinking recently and four had cut down. In ALD patients two life-time drinking patterns accounted for 82% of subjects, increasing from youth (51%), and a variable drinking pattern (31%). ALD patients had significantly more drinking days and units/drinking day than non-ALD patients from the age of 20 years onwards.


CONCLUSIONS
Increases in UK liver deaths are a result of daily or near-daily heavy drinking, not episodic or binge drinking, and this regular drinking pattern is often discernable at an early age.
Hatton
Jennifer
J
Liver Unit, Division of Infection, Inflammation and Repair, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Burton
Andrew
A
Nash
Harriet
H
Munn
Emma
E
Burgoyne
Lesley
L
Sheron
Nick
N
D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000506:poisoning*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors
D000431:Ethanol