'Drunkorexia': The Newest Trend For Young Female College Students

"Drunkorexia" is a term coined to describe the new trend of skipping meals and binging on alcoholic drinks. Before, it was only though to be anecdotal. But a new study revealed that it is more common now than it was previously thought.

There is a new dangerous disorder spreading around like plague in different universities. A study found that 'Drunkorexia', a behavior when a student skips a meal or exercises heavily before drinking, affects more people than what was previously thought. These students usually purge themselves during or after engaging in a drinking spree of alcoholic drinks.

According to Mail Online, the main objective of drunkorexia is to deprive one's self of calories and save them for drinking instead. The study from University of Houston involving 1,200 students revealed that the behavior is more common than before.

A Ph.D. student from the University of South Australia (UniSA) named Alissa Knight studied this college trend after knowing about its existence in the United States. The study, published in the Australian Psychologist journal on June 30, showed that 57.7 percent of the female participants said that they have been engaging in several dysfunctional eating habits and extreme weight-loss or weight-control behaviors 25 percent of the time, or even more in the last three months, which Knight thinks is a "considerable percentage," Tech Times reported.

It was also reported that about 37.5 percent of young women admitted to skipping meals before going to a drinking party while 46.3 percent drink sugar-free or low-calorie drinks while at the event. Knight also discovered that 51.2 percent of the female participants exercised after the social activity.

"These are dangerous behaviors because evidence shows young female adults who are binge drinking on an empty stomach, or after strenuous exercise, have increased alcohol toxicity, which dramatically increases their risk of developing serious physical and psychological health consequences, including brain and heart damage, memory lapses, blackouts, depression, and cognitive deficits," Knight said.

Dr. Susan Simpson, the UniSA Psychology Clinic director who supervised Knight's research, explained that although young women admitted that they engaged in dysfunctional eating behaviors regularly, the study found that many of them only used drastic measures when alcohol is involved. Independent.co.uk said that these methods are purging, starvation, laxatives intake and extreme exercise.

"Drunkorexia appears to have evolved from the need for young girls to meet possibly the two most prominent social norms for young adults - drinking and thinness," added Knight.