News Release - Young adults in denial about alcohol abuse Thurday 06 December 2007
A high proportion of 25 year olds who experience problems with alcohol don't think that they need help according to new research from the University of Otago, Christchurch.
The research by Dr Elisabeth Wells from the Department of Public Health and General Practice, examines reasons why young adults do or do not seek help for alcohol problems. It has just been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and was funded by the Health Research Council as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study.
The study found that around one third of the 1003 young adults surveyed reported problems with alcohol over the previous four years, i.e. from 21-24. However of these 351 young adults only 26 (7%), had treatment for alcohol problems. The other 93% did not seek help for their drinking problems.
Of the 7% who did seek help, nearly all felt they needed treatment, and that view was supported by family and friends. Dr Wells says this indicates the important role of family and friends in assisting young people to recognise that they need help, and more importantly, to take action.
The main reasons given in the survey for not seeking help or advice were: that they thought they did not need help (96%), or that their alcohol problem would just get better by itself (29%), or that they did not think to go for help (25%).
"One of the worrying results of this study is that the more severe the diagnosis in terms of drinking the more likely young adults are to think that their problems will get better by themselves and not seek help," says Dr Wells. "Males are twice as likely as females to take this head-in-the sand attitude."
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