A five-year study finds cocktail hour could be the cure for college binge drinking.
The study, funded by the Kansas Health Foundation and headed by Kansas State University psychology Professor Steve Benton, will be presented to the American Psychological Association in August, The Washington Times reports.
"Even when controlling the amount of alcohol, it's not how much you drink that affects the amount of trouble, but how risky you are," Benton said.
He said teaching students how to drink sensibly could solve the problem.
A 2005 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found 1,700 college students from age 18 to 24 die every year, either from alcohol poisoning or alcohol-related injuries. Another 599,000 students are unintentionally injured while intoxicated and 696,000 are assaulted by fellow students who were also drinking.
A 2004 University of California at San Francisco study found that "heavy" social drinking (as few as three drinks a day) can lead to brain damage.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
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