Alcohol blackouts: Not a joke

http://goo.gl/R8fRjZ

"Someone who has had a blackout cannot remember part of their drinking episode," said Schuckit. "As you can imagine, blackouts are likely to occur when the drinker is vulnerable to a range of additional dangerous consequences. Women might have unprotected sex, place themselves in a situation where they can be raped, or not be fully capable of protecting themselves. Men can get into fights, use very bad judgement regarding another person, and are often the driver when BACs associated with blackouts can lead to a car accident. Blackouts are very dangerous for both men and women."

"Our results showed that blackouts were common and repetitive in these young British subjects," said Schuckit. "For example, 30 percent of those who drank reported ARBs at age 15, and 74 percent reported ARBs at age 19. Almost half of our sample not only had blackouts during the four total years of our study, but also had blackouts every time we followed up with them, approximately every one and a half years."