| Psychiatrist Dr Peter Rice was commenting after new methods of calculating alcoholic units to reflect stronger drinks and larger glasses revealed people are drinking more than they realised.
Public Health Minister and Dundee East MSP Shona Robison is also concerned that even the recalculated figures show only the tip of the iceberg.
Dr Rice said many of his patients consume more than a bottle a day and he warned that heavy drinkers know their measures and will not be swayed by the changes.
“Patients will joke about having one glass of vodka a day and the glass is a litre,” he said.
“Heavy drinkers tend to be well informed about the amount they are drinking so information is not the solution to their problem.”
Patients referred to specialist alcohol services locally are asked how long a bottle of wine lasts and what is the strength of the wine they buy in recognition of the fact glass sizes vary and alcohol strengths vary.
Dr Rice said that clearly marking bottles with the alcohol strengths worked for some people and helped them drink sensibly.
“For some people, and probably more people, it works the other way,” he said. “I think people may see it as a value-for-money issue.”
A Scottish Government report published earlier this month estimated that alcohol misuse could be costing Scotland as much as £2.25 billion every year in costs to business, the NHS, social services, police and courts.
Today there were concerns many more Scottish drinkers than previously thought could be putting their health at risk after figures were updated to reflect the increasing strength of drinks.
Recalculated figures from the 2003 Scottish Health Survey show that 34% of men consume more than their recommended weekly limit of 21 units, with 23% of women drinking more than their recommended 14 units per week.
These figures for men and women are up from 27% and 14% respectively under the old calculations.
The statistics also show that 63% of men drank more than the recommended four units on their heaviest drinking day in the week prior to being surveyed, while 64% of women drank more than their recommended three units.
In fact, 40% of men and 33% of women are ‘binge drinking’ at least double the recommended daily unit intake on their heaviest drinking day. The effect of the revisions of the 2003 findings is greater for women than men, mainly due to the fact the change in unit conversion has had a greater impact on wine than on other types of drink and women are more likely to be wine drinkers.
Shona Robison said, “These figures highlight a troubling reality: far too many Scots are regularly drinking more than the recommended amounts, putting their health at risk in both the short and long term.
“What’s even more worrying is that, given NHS Health Scotland's findings, the true scale of alcohol misuse is likely to be significantly worse than even these figures suggest. We need to rebalance Scotland’s relationship with alcohol and enable people to make more positive choices about their alcohol use.” |
