DOUBLE TROUBLE; NEW BOOZE MENACE SHOCK.Byline: Lachlan Mackinnon Lachlan Mackinnon (born 1956) is a contemporary English poet, critic and literary journalist. He was born in Aberdeen and educated at Charterhouse and Oxford. He lives in Winchester with the poet Wendy Cope, and teaches English at Winchester College. SCOTS women are twice as likely to become alcoholics as those in England. The rate of booze dependency among women north of the Border is 3.3 per cent - compared with 1.7 per cent in England. That means 71,804 Scots women, in addition to 143,228 men, are hooked on alcohol. Yesterday, the Record revealed that more than one in four Scots have hazardous or harmful drinking habits. We uncovered the shocking statistic during an exclusive look at figures contained in a report by the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams (SAADAT SAADAT Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams (UK) ). The figures showed that 27.9 per cent of adult Scots - 1.172million people - are risking their health through excessive drinking and that one in 20 is addicted to alcohol. Also, only one in 12 with a problem gets specialist help. Speaking at the official publication of the report yesterday, co-author Colin Drummond, professor of addiction psychiatry at King's College, London, admitted the true scale of Scotland's drinking shame was unknown. He said: "Our figures are probably an underestimate because the surveys we used wouldn't have been filled out by people in prison or the pub." Scots men still drive the nation's drinking culture. The rate of alcohol dependency among adult males is 6.7 per cent - higher than England's 5.8 per cent. And young men are the worst offenders, the report revealed. One in 12 men aged 16 to 44 are addicted to alcohol. This drops to 6.8 per cent of 45 to 64-year-olds and 2.2 per cent of over-65s. Youth also plays a role in women's drinking habits, with 4.8 per cent of 16 to 44-year-olds hooked, compared with 2.7 per cent of those aged 45 to 64 and 1.4 per cent of the over-65s. Where you live also plays a big part in how much you drink. In the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area, 43,978 people - 6.1 per cent of the population - are alcoholics. Grampian and Tayside have the lowest rates at 4.3 per cent. The rate for Ayrshire and Arran Ayrshire and Arran is a lieutenancy area of Scotland. It consists of the Scottish council areas of East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire. The area has joint electoral, valuation and health boards. , Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (Dùn Phris agus an Gall-Ghaidhealaibh in Gaelic) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. To the north, it borders onto South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire; in the east the Borders; and to the south the county of Cumbria in England. , and Lanarkshire is 4.4 per cent and in ForthValley and Argyll and Clyde Argyll and Clyde is a present area of operations for one of Scotland's Procurators Fiscal. It is also a former health board area. It consists of Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, western West Dunbartonshire, and western East Renfrewshire. it's 4.7 per cent. The figure stands at 4.8 per cent in the Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are broadly the Scottish Highlands plus Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides. The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1886 applied. , and five per cent in Lothian, Fife and the Borders. The report, which is the first comprehensive survey of Scotland's alcohol services, revealed 632 staff work directly with addicts. They operate with a total annual budget of pounds 61million. The average waiting time for access to help - in the form of medical treatment or counselling - is three-and-a-half weeks. Of Scotland's 97 specialist alcohol addiction services, 10 are residential and the rest community-based. It is thought about 17,000 Scots access the services every year, which represents only one in 12 of those who need help. Launching the Scottish Alcohol Needs Assessment report, SAADAT chairwoman MaggieWatts said: "Since 2001, there has been a significant investment of resources and this year has seen an even bigger amount being invested in alcohol services than ever before. "It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the sizeable proportion of the population who need help to conquer their alcohol problem. "However, the first national needs assessment provides us with an excellent baseline from which we now need to move to increase the availability of services and reduce the number of people whose needs are not being met." Dr Peter Rice, chairman of the Royal College of Psychiatrists The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, responsible for representing and certifying psychiatrists, psychiatric training and providing high quality public information about mental , pointed out alcohol abuse causes half of mouth cancer deaths and a fifth of those from breast cancer. It is also implicated in 34 per cent of assaults and one in 10 suicides. About one in 20 deaths in Scotland is caused by alcohol, rising to 26.1 per cent among men aged 35 to 44. THE TELL-TALE SYMPTOMS SAADAT define a "dependent drinker" as someone who has at least three of a range of tell-tale symptoms. These are "tolerance alcohol withdrawal, craving, relief of withdrawal, neglect of alternative pleasures and persistence of drinking, despite negative consequences". Hazardous use is drinking above a level that may cause harm in future but is not currently causing clear evidence of harm. Harmful use is "drinking at a level leading to evidence of physical, social or psychological harm". CAPTION(S): BAD HABIT bad habit Unhealthy habit Clinical medicine A patterned behavior regarded as detrimental to physical or mental health, which is often linked to a lack of self-control. Cf Good habit. : Alcohol abuse is worse among young people |
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