Alcohol liver disease rate trebles in 12 years

THE number of young people presenting with alcoholic liver disease (ALD) more than trebled over a 12-year-period, leading research experts have said.

Writing a letter to the editor in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, health service researchers and addiction specialist Dr Bobby Smyth warned that the rate of ALD discharges from hospital increased by 247% for 15 to 34-year-olds and by 224% for 35 to 49-year-olds between 1995 and 2007.

They also warned that while the majority of ALD discharges were male, there was a higher proportion of females in the youngest age group, attributing this to the fact that young Irish women binge drink in the same way men do.