YOUNG START TO DRINKING PREDICTS ALCOHOLISM - REPORT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The younger children or teenagers are when they
start to drink, the more likely they are to become alcoholics, government
researchers said on Wednesday.

They said the unexpected findings were yet another reason to keep alcohol
away from children.

``The younger kids start drinking, the more likely they will develop
alcohol dependence at some time in their lives,'' said Bridget Grant, who
led the study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA)

Children who started drinking before the age of 15 were four times more
likely to become alcoholics, formally known as alcohol dependent, as those
who started at 21.

The risk that a person would abuse alcohol was doubled in people who
started drinking before 15 compared to those who waited until the current
legal drinking age of 21.

``These are whopping statistics and a very strong association,'' Grant told
a news conference. The effect held strong when factors like sex, race, age,
duration of drinking and family history were accounted for, Grant said. The
volunteers were not asked how much and how often they drank.

``Some people will say didn't we know this? Well, we didn't know this,''
said Dr. Enoch Gordis, director of the NIAAA.

A 13-year-old who has started drinking has a 28 percent chance of becoming
an alcoholic if there is no family history of alcohol abuse. Among
13-year-olds with a family history of alcohol problems the risk is 58
percent, with an average risk of 43 percent for all 13-year-olds.

This drops dramatically to about 10 percent of people who started to drink
at 21.

``At this point we can't tell you the reasons. We can only speculate on
what they might be,'' Gordis added. ``One possibility is the later you
start, the less time you have to establish a habit of drinking before
protective mechanisms kick in, such as your first job.''

Or the young brain may be more susceptible to the influence of alcohol, he
added.

Dr. Mary Dufour, deputy director of the NIAAA, said many underage children
drank.

``Alcohol is America's No. 1 drug of choice,'' Dufour said. ''In 1987
nearly half of eighth graders...said they had used alcohol sometime in
their lives,'' she added.

``These numbers scare me.''

The NIAAA researchers took information from 43,000 people surveyed
face-to-face by the U.S. Census Bureau. Among the questions in the 110-page
survey were queries about when a person first started drinking -- excluding
the occasional sip or taste as part of family or religious events.

They said the margin of error was very low -- less than three percent.

They cited statistics showing alcohol abuse among the young was associated
with risky sex, leading to teen-age pregnancy and exposure to the HIV virus
that causes AIDS. It was also strongly linked with violence, depression and
suicide.

``The main reason for prevention is that it's a disaster in the young,
independent of this issue,'' Gordis said.

``We need to be vigorous in our enforcement of laws that are meant to
protect young people from access to alcohol,'' Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala said in a statement. ''And we need to avoid
glamorization of drinking, including misleading linkages between sports and
alcohol.''

Grant said other countries such as France and Italy, where drinking was
accepted at younger ages, were experiencing similar problems with alcohol
abuse.