Doctors tell of huge human cost of chronic alcohol abuse in Scotland

Published on Wednesday 1 April 2009 22:10

SCOTTISH doctors have spoken out about their experience of dealing with alcohol abuse in a hard-hitting report on the human cost of the problem.

The medics told of teenagers in intensive care with alcohol poisoning and patients who thought it was their "national duty" to get drunk.

Backing Scottish Government measures to tackle alcohol misuse, such as introducing minimum pricing, the British Medical Association said that urgent action was desperately needed.

Their report – The Human Cost of Alcohol Misuse – includes many testimonies from doctors in the NHS.

The BMA highlighted the worrying statistics which illustrate the extent of alcohol problems in Scotland, including a 400 per cent increase in the number of people with alcoholic liver disease since 1996.

One doctor said they saw children as young as 13 or 14 unconscious in hospital due to alcohol misuse, while another spoke of a 15-year-old in intensive care with alcohol poisoning.

"Some seem to think it is a national duty to drink to excess – it is part of their Scots identity," they said.

Other medics spoke of young girls falling pregnant and being treated for sexually transmitted infections after having unprotected sex when drunk.

The report called for the introduction of minimum pricing of products based on alcohol content – a measure proposed by the Scottish Government but opposed by many critics, including the alcohol industry. The BMA also recommended that licensing boards should consider public health consequences when considering new licences, and that promotional activities by licensed premises should be strictly regulated.

Dr Peter Terry, chairman of BMA Scotland, said: "Alcohol can be an enjoyable part of social and cultural life in Scotland, but the growing 'booze culture' emerging in our towns and cities is creating serious health problems for the future."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Doctors are seeing the shocking toll of alcohol misuse every day in thousands of consultations, hospital visits and – at the worst end – in deaths."

VIEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE

"I HAVE met a young man who is constantly being found slumped on the road, in the middle of car parks and constantly brought into A&E ... it is increasingly apparent that he is hooked to alcohol and that is that. The tragedy is he is young, he's had a great upbringing but now he seems reduced to a human carcass."

"AS a GP I see many families torn apart by alcohol problems, suffering financial hardship. Alcohol often plays a major part in domestic violence and breakdown of relationships."

"THE severity of heavy drinking came home to me last year when I had two patients both aged under 50, one who had only drank heavily between the ages of 17 and 25 who had developed Korsakoff's syndrome such that she had no short-term memory and could not live an independent life. She is now 43 and living in a nursing home. The other had drunk heavily for 20 years and her liver had packed up.She died leaving her husband and two teenage children."

"I WISH those with ambivalent attitudes to binge drinking could spend a night in casualty (while sober) to witness the reality of the human cost of alcohol abuse. My memories of working there include the constant smell of vomit and stale alcohol, the trauma of being groped and sworn at by drunken attendees, while trying to sort through the sheer chaos of alcohol inflicted damage."

"WE continue to see children as young as 13 or 14 in our community hospital unconscious as a consequence of alcohol which has become the obligatory social lubricant for almost every event."

"A 15-YEAR-OLD boy fell unconscious at a party, he spent the next 24 hours in intensive care with severe acute alcohol poisoning requiring ventilation."

"OF many tragic young deaths, I recall most a young man who drank heavily from his mid teens. He said that his drinking was the result of being shunned because he was gay. One day he was found dead, having aspirated his own vomit. There were so many people at his funeral that some had to stand outside."