Alcohol abuse blamed for upsurge in pancreatitis

ALCOHOL is partly to blame for rising rates of acute pancreatitis a new study has found.

The incidence of inflammation of the pancreas has doubled over the past 30 years, particularly among younger age groups, the authors of the report claim.

Public health professor Michael J Goldacre and university research lecturer, Stephen E Roberts, who compiled the English national study, suggested the rise in pancreatitis “is probably, in particular, a rise in alcoholic pancreatitis related to increasing use of alcohol in the community”.

Irish Medical Organisation president Dr James Reilly, said Irish rates of acute pancreatitis were also likely to be linked to alcohol consumption.

“Alcohol is a wonderful social lubricant and when taken moderately, can even have a beneficial effect, for instance in the case of a glass of red wine, which can be good for women in terms of preventing cardiac disease. However the problem is many of us do not realise just how much alcohol we are consuming and the damage it is doing.”

Irish College of General Practitioners chairman, Dr Eamonn Shanahan, said pancreatitis was a serious and potentially life-threatening illness.

“It is fair to say the excess consumption of alcohol is leading to considerable disability in the community, not just social and psychological, but physical as well. Acute pancreatitis accounts for perhaps three percent of all hospital admissions.”

Dr Shanahan said there was a huge need to encourage more temperate drinking.

A survey by MEAS, an Irish-based drinks industry organisation which claims to promote moderate drinking, revealed this week that many young people are using fake IDs and friends’ passports to buy alcohol.

The British survey of acute pancreatitis rates, reported in the British Medical Journal found it was mainly caused by alcohol abuse and gall stones. It produces an attack of severe upper abdominal pain, often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. It also found death rates in the first month after admission to hospital were 30 times higher than in the general population of the same age.