CDC: Six People Die Every Day from Alcohol Poisoning
Jan. 09--A large number of Americans, most of them middle-aged men, are drinking themselves to death, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And though the report shows Connecticut has a fairly low rate of alcohol-related deaths, several experts said it's still a concern here.
"It's a huge problem," said Dr. Jeremy Barowsky, director of addiction medicine at Greenwich Hospital.
The CDC reports that about six people die from alcohol poisoning each day in the United States.
The findings are based on data from 2010 through 2012. During that period, there was an annual average of 2,221 alcohol poisoning deaths among people older than 15. The majority -- 75.7 percent -- of the deaths were among those 35 to 64, and 76.4 percent involved men.
Death rates varied by state, and Connecticut had one of the 10 lowest in the country, at 6.6 deaths a year per million people in the population. There was an average of 19 deaths from alcohol poisoning a year in the state.
The state with lowest rate was Alabama, with 5.3 deaths per 1 million people and Alaska had the highest rate, at 46.5 deaths per million people.
Connecticut's low rate makes sense to Rock Ferrigno, chairman of Bridgeport Hospital's emergency department, who called alcohol poisoning cases "a very unusual thing that I haven't seen in our emergency department yet."
Other alcohol-related problems, however, are fairly common. These include intoxicated people injured after falling and those hurt or killed in drunken driving accidents.
"We do see a lot of alcohol-related illness," Ferrigno said -- to the point where he and others in the emergency department are researching ways to reduce alcoholism in the region. "We're trying to get an understanding of what kind of resources would work for that."
Others were surprised by Connecticut's low rates of alcohol poisonings, including Barowsky. He said alcohol poisonings are a concern in Greenwich, and are something he's seen at the hospital. Despite the CDC findings, Barowsky said many of the cases he's seen are among college-aged young adults. Still, he added that any age group is susceptible to alcohol poisoning, particularly since alcohol consumption itself makes people less aware of the harm they're doing to their bodies.
"People don't judge the effects of their own drinking (properly)," he said. "Each drink impairs you ability to make decisions. That's why these incidents occur."
Alcohol poisoning happens when someone drinks so much that the body can't process it, causing blood alcohol concentration to rise. The symptoms of alcohol poisoning include vomiting, slow or irregular breath, seizures, inability to wake up, and low body temperature.
"Alcohol will pretty much shut down your brain," said Dr. John Douglas, clinical director of the outpatient opioid addiction program at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan.
He said one of the reasons alcohol is so potentially dangerous is that too many people assume that because it's legal, it doesn't carry any risk. But, Douglas said, as with any drug, alcohol can be deadly when misused.
Most alcohol poisonings happen during severe binge drinking episodes, according to the CDC report.
Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men in a single sitting. About 38 million U.S. adults report binge drinking an average of four times per month and consume an average of eight drinks per binge.
A CDC report released last year showed that the majority -- 90 percent -- of those who binge drink aren't alcohol dependent. But experts said there's definitely a potential link between alcoholism and alcohol poisoning.
"If you're addicted, you don't have the ability to control how much you're drinking," Douglas said.
Copyright 2015 - Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
