Doctor: Decrease in alcohol abuse among young people is deceptive

The head of the children's clinic at Dresden University Hospital, Reinhard Berner, warns against drawing false conclusions in view of the decreasing number of inpatient treatments for alcohol poisoning among young people. "The pure statistical figure is a deceptive idea," Reinhard Berner, Director of the Children's Hospital at Dresden University Hospital, told the German Press Agency.

It is not possible to deduce a smaller alcohol abuse problem among children and adolescents from this. "In fact, if you ask our colleagues in the emergency departments, they would say that the children admitted to hospital have consumed a lot more alcohol and possibly other drugs as well."

Inpatient treatments down by a third since 2019

The number of inpatient treatments for adolescents and children with alcohol poisoning has fallen sharply in recent years. In 2024, there were 807 cases in Saxony, as recently reported by the health insurance company DAK with reference to data from the State Statistical Office. This was 8.7 percent fewer than in 2023.

Thus, the decline in Saxony was greater than in Germany as a whole. Nationwide, 8,781 young binge drinkers were registered - 5.3 percent fewer than in the previous year. This was the lowest number in 25 years.

Up to and including 2019, the number of 10 to 19-year-olds intoxicated with alcohol in Saxony had risen steadily - from 1,177 in 2017 to 1,231 to a high of 1,266. In comparison, more than a third fewer boys and girls were admitted to hospital with alcohol intoxication in 2024.

Threshold for inpatient admissions increased

According to Berner, the fact that the number of inpatient treatments is decreasing overall is mainly due to the changed premises for inpatient admissions. "The threshold for admitting children as inpatients has changed significantly in recent years, particularly since the start of the pandemic, partly due to our bed capacities." As with many other illnesses, much more is now done on an outpatient basis. "We are sending more children home with their parents than was perhaps the case ten years ago."

Young patients remain in hospital when their health or even their lives are at risk due to particularly high alcohol levels or mixed intoxication with other drugs. "There is a risk that they could become very cold or become so unconscious that they could choke and vomit into their lungs." Even if the parents cannot be reached, this is a reason to keep the young people on site.

Also cases with a chronic alcohol problem

In many - according to Berner, rather unproblematic - cases, the young patients only end up in the clinic once or twice, for example because they have gone overboard at a city festival. "But we also have a whole series of children or adolescents who have a chronic alcohol problem and come to us again and again." They often come from difficult backgrounds and no longer live with their parents, for example, but sometimes on the street or in residential groups.

Berner warns of the long-term consequences that threaten young people in particular. "Chronic alcohol consumption is not good for development, but also for the organs and the brain." It is also often a gateway to substance abuse for young people. "This means that alcohol is just the beginning and then other drugs follow."