As part of Substance Abuse Prevention Week, Dr. Aaron White led a discussion on the physiology of blackouts Tuesday night.
The event, titled “What happened? Alcohol, memory blackouts and the brain” was hosted by the Women’s Center, the Office of the Dean of Students, the Athletics Department, the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Team and the Gordie Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
White, the program director of a college and underage substance abuse research center, focused his talk on medical costs of alcohol consumption.
“You are adults," White said. "I assume you can make good choices for yourselves [given the right information].”
White said despite the widespread belief that youth drinking is out of control, there are much lower rates of young individuals drinking alcohol today than there were in the past. There is, however, an increase in the number of hospitalizations due to drinking than there used to be.
“Fewer students are drinking, but more are being hospitalized,” White said. “This leads us to think that those who do drink are going to extremes.”
White discussed alcohol’s effect on various parts of the brain, including the frontal lobe, the amygdala, the reward system and the hippocampus. The suppression of the hippocampus is what causes blackouts, White said, an experience wherein “literally a chunk of your life is gone”.
Statistics on the binge-drinking leading up to blackouts have changed in the past decade, White said. The number of males who binge drink is decreasing, while the number of females who binge drink is either increasing or staying the same.
“There is a shift in the culture, which is only affecting males for some reason,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
The event was an extension of the University-wide appeal to students to practice safe drinking, especially as the last home football game approaches. Each year, some University students participate in the fourth-year fifth, where they try to consume a fifth of liquor prior to kickoff of the last home football game.
University President Teresa Sullivan sent a mass email to fourth years Monday, cautioning against the dangers of excessive drinking.
“The deaths of college students due to high-risk drinking are tragic and far too common,” Sullivan said in the email.
Sullivan said participating in the fourth-year fifth could be deadly.
“A fifth of 80-proof liquor (17 drinks) can kill you,” she said. “Seventeen drinks spaced evenly over 8 hours can result in a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.25 for a 180-pound man and 0.38 for a 150-pound woman. Most people need help to stand or walk when they have BACs above 0.20. Those with a BAC of 0.29 or higher may die from alcohol overdose.”
White spoke on the topic of alcohol-related deaths as well.
“My advice is that you don’t let other people pour your drinks for you,” White said. “Your first concern should be how much alcohol is in your alcohol.”
Sullivan said it is up to the leadership of the students to watch out for themselves and for one another to avoid alcohol-related incidents.
“Your commitment to student self-governance includes taking responsibility for yourself and for members of your student community,” she said.
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