By James Rougvie

MORE CHILDREN aged between eight and 15 suffering from alcohol-related problems were treated at Ninewells Hospital last year compared to the previous year.

Although numbers have been going down for the past decade, an alcohol expert who works with children and young teen-agers said last night that more and more youngsters were getting “out of their faces” on strong cider and beer, while people suffering liver and brain damage were getting younger.

Figures released by the Executive disclose that in Scotland last year 548 youths were treated for alcohol-related problems, down on the previous year and decreasing each year since 1997-98.

But throughout Tayside last year, 37 youngsters were admitted for treatment, many of them to accident and emergency. This was three more than the previous year, with the rise attributable to increased admissions at Ninewells, where five more were treated than in the previous year.

By contrast, three fewer were admitted to Perth, while a solitary admission was made to the St Margaret’s Hospital at Auchterarder. Fife’s admissions fell from 30 in 2003-04 to 17 last year, with eight to Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline and nine at the Victoria in Kirkcaldy.

Children’s services manager with Tayside Council on Alcohol Katherine Baker said almost all of the children taken to hospital were emergency admissions—“Taken to hospital out of their faces and treated for alcohol poisoning.”

She added, “The figures don’t particularly surprise me because we are seeing an increasing number of young people getting into difficulties through their drinking habits. The numbers appear to have fallen slightly, but under-age drinking remains a big problem both in Tayside and Fife.”

“If they continue with this pattern—and their drinking seems to have moved on from getting drunk not only at weekends but also into Sundays and during the week—it will lead to problems such as liver damage at a younger age.”

Previously, the trend was for liver and brain damage to affect those in their 40s and 50s, she said, but was now being seen in people in their 30s and 40s.

She also welcomed moves to discuss taxing drink more, saying it was too cheap.