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Here we go again, it just keeps getting worse. New research shows alcohol-related illnesses could be killing one in 20 Scots – twice as many as previously thought.
The study totalled the proportion of 53 different causes of death – ranging from stomach cancer and strokes to assaults and road deaths – in which alcohol consumption played a part, to show that nearly 3,000 deaths in Scotland in 2003 were alcohol-related.
This is double the figure for deaths from illnesses caused almost entirely by alcohol consumption alone, such as alcoholic liver disease.
It means one Scot may be dying from alcohol-related causes every three hours.
While alcohol-related deaths accounted for five per cent of all deaths in Scotland, this proportion rises to more than a quarter of deaths in men and a fifth of women aged 35 – 44.
In addition, around 41,414 people were discharged from hospital due to alcohol consumption – more than one in twenty (7.3 per cent) of patients over 16, and 50 per cent higher than figures based on wholly attributable conditions.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said.
“This research shows that alcohol misuse is taking an even higher toll on Scotland’s health than previously thought. To have one in 20 Scots dying from alcohol-related causes is a truly shocking statistic.”
“Drinking alcohol is part of Scottish culture, but it’s clear that many people are drinking too much and damaging their health in the process. Alcohol misuse is the biggest public health challenge we face and the Scottish Government has made crystal clear our determination to get to grips with it.”
Notice 41,414 folk were discharged. Addiction is a disease of opposites. It’s the only disease where in its terminal stages they kick you out of hospital. Make no mistake at all that in some folk, not all but in most, alcoholism is a brain stress disease. Never mind how it started, voluntary or not, it’s a true disease killing one Scot every 3 hours.
It’s good to see co-ordinators like Val Tallon coming to the site trying to help things change and I hope she does go and visit David McCartney’s LEAP project in Edinburgh.
I have been attending these meetings in Lanarkshire Scotland and only last week put an offer from ourselves at Affinity Lodge and my good pal John McLean, who owns the alcohol clinic Abbeycare Foundation in Scotland. Half a million pounds of our own money to start a project like LEAP and it never got the blink of a eye.
I have personal experience of NHS treatment in Scotland, a 14-day psychiatric hospital stay, detox as they put it, and a counselling session 3 months later. It’s a disgrace that suffering alcoholics and their families are not being told the truth about this disease and being given the chance to learn more about managing it. You better believe that those who where discharged went home with a packet of Valium.
Talk about being sick and tired of being sick and tired of this being a disease or not. Just look up the world’s leading neuroscientists on addiction and listen what there saying.
Part of the success at the LEAP project is folk get to learn about their state as a treatable brain disease. The only specialist clinics in Scotland for alcoholism deal with brain damage due to alcohol. Us in the private sector do not have the same outcomes, so surely the Scottish government must take some ideas from there.
Maybe putting a halt to giving millions of pounds to corporate companies like Turning Point, Phoenix House and others for the same outcomes year after year.
Just look what Noreen Oliver has done with the Burton Addiction Centre in Staffordshire. We need more Noreens, not NHS hospitals.
They shut a 40-bed, 6-month programme alcohol unit down last year in Greenock, Scotland because of the Care Commission Scotland Act. i have seen five men’s lives change as a result of that unit. It was closed because the government said every one should have there own room.
How mad is that?
Hi Gillen & John, thanks for the blog, very scary yet so true, I came into recovery way back in 2001, from being in a mental ward to 2 Re-habs and over 30 detoxes within Hospital I have seen many changes in what was in place and what we have today.
In one Re-hab I was reminded that the scale of alcohol problems in the country is a “Time Bomb” just waiting!
Due to the scale of changes and cut backs and far more put into quantity and not quailty of services available today, I am certain if I tried to come into recovery today the state I was in way back in 2001 and would not stand a chance in any way to recover.
I become very sad at those who are seeking recovery today knowing what was in place all those years ago, those seeking recovery have no choose on what is on offer and are unaware what was available in the past.
I agree so much in the millions giving to the large organisations, the bigger they are the less quality care is available and we the users are then treated like numbers going through the books rather than individuals seeking and wanting quality support to have a chance with recovery.
Thanks once again and best Wishes to you and all.
ALCOHOL is killing one Scot every three hours, Yep John and Jane thats 8 people dead everyday in Scotland alone.
Dr Peter Terry, chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said the nation was “awash with alcohol” and the effects were “crippling” the NHS.
The research published yesterday is the first of its kind, including the whole range of illnesses and accidents linked to alcohol consumption.
The study, published by ISD Scotland, identified 53 conditions ranging from cancers to strokes, assaults and road deaths where alcohol played a role.
The researchers reanalysed data from 2003 based on new methods of calculating the damage caused by alcohol.
They found there were 2,882 deaths in Scotland thought to be linked to alcohol, compared with the previous estimate of just 1,525 for that year.
There were 1,080 deaths in people under the age of 55.
Young people were more likely to die from an acute condition such as an injury linked to alcohol use rather than from a chronic condition.
However, one in ten of all deaths in those aged 35 to 44 was linked to alcoholic liver disease.
The research also found 41,414 people were discharged from hospital due to alcohol consumption – more than one in 20 of patients over the age of 16, and 50 per cent higher than previous figures.
The report also estimated drinking at moderate levels had some benefit in preventing deaths from heart disease. It suggested that 1,493 heart disease deaths may have been prevented in this way, but the report warned that even drinking at low levels was a risk factor for other conditions.
Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “This research shows alcohol misuse is taking an even higher toll on Scotland’s health than previously thought.But Scottish Conservative health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: “It is important in the light of these figures that the Scottish Government stops relying on minimum pricing as a single tool solution.
“We urgently need better education about the harm which alcohol can cause and rehabilitation programmes based on abstinence and recovery.”
John i never thought id say it but im with the torys on this one!
How any health board or local authortiy can knock back half a million pounds investment from recovering alcoholics with a proven track record for delivering services in the private sector is totally baffling to me, i would have seen it a vital oppertunity to utilise your skills without any risk, but hey what do I know!
Great and timely blog, well done.
Annemarie x
Thanks to John and Jane for highlighting these latest figures around the morbidity and mortality related to alcohol excess and dependence in Scotland. Alarming doesn’t begin to cover it.
Thanks also for the mention of LEAP as a treatment choice for those looking for help. We work on the bio-psycho-social model of addiction; a disease modified and mediated by behaviour, environment and society.
In trying to help people recover, in effect passing on the tools of recovery, we also need to be very aware of the post treatment environment. As Bill White points out, the further away people get from the treatment experience, the more important the post treatment environment becomes.
That’s why aftercare and mutual aid are so vitally important, as well as growing a recovery community of formal and informal social networks in order that people will be supported after treatment.
I was delighted to read in the July/August copy of Addiction Today (which is brilliant by the way, check it out) that in Liverpool the fellowships of Cocaine Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are growing fast (around 30 meetings a week in the City). This is evidence of recovery, of a community revolution.
Having recovery at the heart of all we do, whether it’s in the NHS, Local Authority or in the voluntary/private sector is the key to changing lives.
Thanks for highlighting this, read it in the paper but it still does not go far enough… for more background reading I suggest Bruce Alexanders ‘The globalization of adiction’ to broaden the concept out of the brain arena…
