HC Deb 07 November 1996 vol 284 c637W
Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has carried out since 1990 into the relationship between alcohol and depression amongst young people. [1788]

Mr. Burns

As our report, "Sensible Drinking", 1995, recognised, only extremely heavy drinking—in excess of 80g—10 units—a day—over long periods of time is likely to cause conditions such as clinical depression. There is no evidence from the most recent survey of adolescent drinking, the Office of Population Censuses and Survey's "Teenage Drinking in 1994", which looked at alcohol consumption of 11 to 15-year-olds, that any of them were drinking alcohol at levels likely to lead in the short term to psychiatric disorders.