Data from a recently released survey of 43,000 American adults heighten concerns that early alcohol use, independent of other risk factors, may contribute to the risk of developing future alcohol problems. Those who began drinking in their early teens were not only at greater risk of developing alcohol dependence at some point in their lives, they were also at greater risk of developing dependence more quickly and at younger ages, and of developing chronic, relapsing dependence.

Among all respondents who developed alcoholism at some point, almost half (47 percent) met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence (alcoholism) by age 21.

Isabel Burk, a substance abuse prevention expert and certified health education specialist who spoke recently at local schools about inhalants, believes while some parents remember drinking during their teen years, today's drinking patterns are quite different.

"Today's youth start drinking at earlier ages and drink more at one sitting, faster," Ms Burk said. "Parents might have had a couple of beers to get buzzed; today's teens drink five or six beers in a single sitting and drink to get totally drunk."

The associations between early drinking and later problems held even after investigators controlled for other risk factors for dependence, adding to concerns that drinking at a young age might raise the risk of future alcohol problems rather than being an identifying feature of young people predisposed to risky behavior. The study appears in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

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