DRINKERS WHO START AT AN EARLY AGE MORE LIKELY TO BECOME ALCOHOLICS, STUDY SAYS

WASHINGTON -- Underage drinkers may have more to worry about than just
breaking the law.

A study by the National Institutes of Health shows that children who begin
drinking before they turn 15 are four times as likely to develop alcoholism
as those who start drinking at the legal age of 21.

They also are twice as likely to abuse alcohol than people who start
drinking later, says the study, conducted by the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a component of the NIH.

Some medical experts say early exposure to drinking, family pressures and
alcohol advertisements have encouraged children to began drinking at
earlier ages and make breaking the habit more difficult as they grow up.

"It's hard to get away from the pervasiveness of alcohol in our culture,"
said Dr. Clarence Chen, medical director at New York's Gracie Square
Hospital, a facility for treating alcohol and drug abuse. "Kids start
drinking because they think it's the adult thing to do."

Chen said an increasing number of his patients with alcohol problems report
they started drinking by age 10. While older children often begin drinking
because of social influences, younger children tend to take their cues from
adults, he said.

"Parents have to be aware they are role models for kids," Chen added.

More freedom and access to alcohol may also contribute to the propensity of
childhood drinking, says Dr. Morris Chafetz, director of the Health
Education Foundation, who has worked on alcohol-related issues for more
than 40 years.

"Kids want to belong and at the same time want to be independent," Chafetz
said. "My guess is that these kids are given opportunities we didn't have
to test out these things."

The study also shows the risk of alcohol dependence decreased by 14 percent
for each year the start of drinking was delayed. The risk of lifetime
alcohol abuse fell by 8 percent with each additional year.

"It remains to be seen whether it is the delay in alcohol use or, possibly,
other associated factors that explain the inverse relationship between age
at drinking onset and lifetime risk for alcohol abuse and alcoholism," said
Dr. Enoch Gordis, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism.

Of the people surveyed for the study, more than 40 percent who began
drinking before they turned 15 eventually became addicted to alcohol. That
compares with the 24.5 percent who began drinking at 17 and the roughly 10
percent who started at the ages of 21 or 22.