Doctor: Decrease in alcohol abuse among young people is deceptive

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."

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