AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION STUDYING `BINGE DRINKING'

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- With a four-year study taking place on at least six
college campuses, the American Medical Association hopes to learn more
about ``binge drinking'' and how to stop students from doing it, the
group's president said Saturday.

Dr. Percy Wootton, who was attending the California Medical Association's
annual meeting in San Diego, said the study began in October and is being
financed with an $8.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The participating schools are: the University of Vermont, Lehigh
University, the University of Delaware, Colorado University, Iowa
University and the University of Wisconsin. More schools might sign up as
the study proceeds, Wootton said.

``These universities were chosen primarily because the student leaders
expressed an interest and willingness to study this problem,'' he said.

The study is being conducted in the wake of two highly publicized
alcohol-related deaths of students at Louisiana State University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Techology last summer and fall.

In December, researchers at Cornell and Southern Illinois universities
released a national survey that found that nearly three of every four
fraternity leaders engage in binge drinking, consuming an average of 14
drinks per week.

``Binge drinking by definition is five drinks in a row in succession for
men, four for women,'' explained Wootton.

Not only does it result in car accidents, it tends to lead to a disregard
for safe sex and to poor grades, and has led to a number of deaths, he said.

While physicians make diagnoses for a lot of diseases that can't be
prevented or treated, binge drinking is different, he said.

``Here is a national public health problem that can be prevented,'' Wootton
said. ``What the study is going to do is try to determine why there is
binge drinking in the first place.''

Each university will come up with its own plan for executing the study.
Some have completed their plans and others are still working on them.

Wootton said he did not know when the first findings might be released.