Long working hours promote alcohol dependence

Risk of alcohol dependence increases with increasing working hours

09.08.2011

With increasing daily working hours, the susceptibility to alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction increases. New Zealand researchers have come to the conclusion in a recent study that working long hours per week can triple the risk of alcohol dependence.

Study Director Sheree Gibb from the University of Otago and colleagues in her study examined more than 1,000 volunteers between the ages of 25 and 30 in the study of possible relationships between working week time and the risk of alcohol abuse. The New Zealand scientists found that people who work more than 50 hours a week are up to 3.3 times more likely to suffer from alcohol addiction than people who do not work. Both women and men are equally affected.

Working hours affect the risk of alcohol dependence
The researchers from New Zealand have shown in their study that working hours, 25-30 year olds, increase the likelihood of alcohol abuse and the risk of alcohol dependence. A tripling of alcohol addiction on weekly working hours of more than 50 hours should make all workaholics think. As a reason for the significant increase in susceptibility to alcohol, the investigator Sheree Gibb called especially the use of alcohol for stress compensation. According to New Zealand researchers, it can be assumed that alcohol is consumed by particularly busy people, especially for the purpose of reducing stress. However, social contacts in the work environment could also encourage more alcohol consumption, because „Where long working hours are part of everyday life, a more sociable atmosphere can arise in which more alcohol is drunk“, explained the study director. Researchers plan to publish their findings in the British Science Journal „Addiction“.

Stress and performance pressure as the cause of alcohol dependence?
Possible correlations with the growing pressure to perform in society have been used in the past to explain the significant increase in alcohol abuse. It said Germany is in terms of consumption of pure alcohol per capita in the international comparison sad frontrunner, said the Drug Commissioner of the Federal Government, Mechthild Dyckmans (FDP), at the presentation of the drug and addiction report 2011 in May. The Federal Drug Commissioner assessed the consumption of alcohol in Germany with about ten liters of pure alcohol per capita as extremely critical. According to the report, around 1.3 million people currently suffer from alcohol dependence in Germany, the Drug Commissioner said. As a cause of the widespread alcohol dependence, experts have long suspected a connection between the individual burden and the tendency to excessive alcohol consumption. The increase in so-called coma drunkenness among adolescents, which has led to a steadily increasing number of alcohol-related hospitalizations among adolescents in recent years, is also attributed to the growing stress at school, with parents, friends or girlfriends. (Fp)

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Picture: Christoph Aron