There has been a dramatic increase in the number of young people hospitalised for liver disease and dying from alcohol-related conditions, a group of leading doctors has warned.
Professor Frank Murray, chairman of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Policy Group on Alcohol, has said that more and more young people were now presenting for treatment.
"There's been an approximate doubling in the number of young and middle-aged people admitted to hospital with alcohol-related problems in the last 15 years. The pattern of those problems has changed.
"Previously it was a disease of mainly men and mainly older people, but now the gender balance is almost one to one, and you see far younger people presenting with problems related to alcohol.
"About one in 25 deaths in Ireland, which is a huge number, is related to alcohol."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Prof Murray said that clinicians were seeing a "catastrophic wave" of diseases related to alcohol.
Prof Murray urged the Government to be as "radical as it can" in relation to its policy on alcohol and substance abuse.
He said, like the smoking ban, there was a great chance to do something that would be of a health benefit to the population at large.
He said there should be minimum unit pricing for alcohol, to increase the price of cheap drink.
Source: rte.ie, 23/04/13
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