Adolescents who drink alone (especially girls) are at higher risk for developing alcoholism

A new study just release by Carnegie Melon University has found that teens who drinking alone have a strong likelihood of developing alcohol use disorder (AUD is now the clinical name for alcoholism).  Women tend to have a higher risk than men.

While doctors frequently screen young people for how often the drink, lead author of this study Kasey Creswell believes that a crucial but sometimes ignored predictor of future alcohol abuse is the social environment in which young people drink.

Creswell said “Most young people who drink do it with others in social settings, but a substantial minority of young people drink alone. Solitary drinking is a unique and robust risk factor for future alcohol use disorder.

The study analyzed data from Monitoring the Future an ongoing study of drug and alcohol use among American youth followed into adulthood. Approximately 4500 adolescents responded to surveys asking teenagers about their patterns of alcohol consumption and whether they drank alone. They were then followed for 17 years. Even for accounting for well known risk factors like binge drinking, frequency of alcohol use, socioeconomic status, and gender, results demonstrated that compared to peers who drank only in social situations adolescents and young adults who reported drinking alone were more likely to experience symptoms of AUD.

They discovered that young adults who drank alone had a 60% higher chance of developing AUD symptoms at age 35 then social drinkers. Female adolescents who drank alone looked particularly at risk for later adult alcohol issues.