Hangovers give America a headache

Published Jun 5, 2000

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By David Morgan

Philadelphia - The Vikings referred to it as the uneasiness that follows debauchery, while the ancient Greeks simply called it "pain".

Whichever best describes the jangle of headache, nausea and diarrhoea known as the common hangover, researchers on Monday said its biggest sufferers are light-to-moderate drinkers who pose a definite risk to themselves and enormous costs for society.

"In the medical community, we tend to focus on alcoholics. But that's a very small number of people, whereas being hung over is a common thing," said Dr Jeffrey Wiese, medical professor at the University of California.

Wiese, together with colleagues at a San Francisco veterans hospital, reviewed medical studies on alcohol use published between 1966 and 1999 to see what they could learn about hangovers.

Wiese and his team will use their findings as the basis for new research into the physiology of hangovers, the safety hazards they pose and possible treatments.

Among other things, they found that hangovers almost always result from five to six drinks for an 80kg man and three to five drinks for a 60kg woman.

Hangover-induced absenteeism and poor job performance costs the US economy about $148-billion (about R1,02-trillion) a year. More than half of all alcohol-related problems in the workplace are caused by light drinkers and 87 percent by light-to-moderate drinkers.

The findings appeared in the June 6 issue of the Annals Of Internal Medicine, a biweekly journal published by the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine.

Research suggests hangovers, which have been around at least as long as the Bible, have definite cardiac, neurological and even psychiatric consequences.

The most extreme form of hangover is a psychiatric disorder characterised by irrational behaviour and named Elpenor syndrome, after a companion of the Greek hero Odysseus. In one of the earliest depictions of a hangover, Homer said that Elpenor awoke from a drunken sleep and sprang off a roof to his death.

"People who are hung over are experiencing more than just a headache, and it can cause physiologic harm to the patient," said Wiese.

"One study showed almost a two-fold increase in the risk of having a heart attack during a severe hangover."

Researchers also found people with hangovers posed a danger to themselves and others long after their blood alcohol levels had returned to normal, suggesting that hangovers could be more insidious than actual inebriation.

Reduced cognitive abilities hampered routine day-to-day activities such as driving or office work.

And in a 1986 study, several pilots who got drunk one night before, were asked to carry out routine manoeuvres on a flight simulator the next morning. Half the pilots said they did not feel hung over. But all put in sub-standard performances.

"Even if you don't feel severely hungover, your cognitive abilities, concentration and technical skills may actually be diminished," said Wiese.

"With inebriation, you're at least more aware of it ... than with a hangover". - Reuters

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