Rise in alcohol deaths in young people concerning, says doctor

A rise in younger people suffering deaths from alcohol is concerning, a doctor has said.

Statistics published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) show the number of deaths caused exclusively by alcohol has increased by 81% in 10 years.

There were 397 registered deaths due to alcohol-specific causes in 2024, compared to 219 in 2014.

Dr Clodagh Corrigan, of the BMA's Northern Ireland Council, said 2024 saw an increase in such deaths among people aged 25 and older.

"The rates have doubled compared to last year. And then 35 to 44, there's been an increase of a third," she told BBC Talkback.

The definition of alcohol-specific deaths includes conditions known to be exclusively caused by alcohol and excludes conditions which may only be partially attributed to alcohol use.

The Nisra statistics show alcohol-specific deaths are most common among people aged between 45 and 64.

However, Corrigan said the rates of deaths in those aged between 25 to 44 has been consistently increasing.

"People think about alcoholics and conjure up an image of somebody who's down on their luck or maybe on the street," she said.

"That's not every alcoholic; that's not every dependent or problem drinker. There are many professionals, people going out to work every day who are drinking heavily in the evening and are managing to maintain their day-to-day life.

"But that doesn't mean that their drinking is any less problematic."

Manus Teague, who describes himself as a recovering alcoholic, said there was a "very fine line" between heavy drinking and alcoholism.

Teague has been sober for 20 years and now works as an addiction counsellor.

"I do believe that if it's affecting the family dynamics or if it's affecting the person's work or the person's health, then somebody should intervene and say something," he told BBC Talkback.

Teague said his father had advised him against buying a bar, but he went ahead.

"I promised that I would never drink with customers, I would never drink my own stock and I did," he said.

"The alcoholism was in me long before I purchased a bar. I would have drank to excess. The compulsion was there from a very, very young age."

Gary McMichael of ASCERT, an alcohol and drug-related harm charity, said by the time someone becomes dependent on alcohol, it is "very difficult to change that".

"The younger that a person starts drinking, there's the greater a likelihood that they could end up with a problem or a dependence later in life," he told the BBC's Evening Extra programme..

"Looking at this in the long term, trying to delay the onset of alcohol consumption for young people is an important aspect of this.

"We're not saying that people shouldn't drink alcohol," he added.

"But in recognising that, whenever someone's drinking starts to have an impact on their health or on aspects of their life, then once you become dependent on alcohol, then it's very difficult to change that."

Alcohol-specific deaths accounted for 2.2% of all deaths registered in Northern Ireland in 2024.

Males have consistently accounted for more alcohol-specific deaths than females, representing 65.9% of all such deaths between 2014 and 2024, with mortality rates for men almost twice those for women.

Alcoholic liver disease remains the leading cause of alcohol-specific deaths between 2014 and 2024, responsible for about two-thirds of cases.

Mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol use are consistently the second most common cause.

Belfast had the highest rate of alcohol-specific deaths of all council areas in 2024, followed by Derry City and Strabane, while Mid Ulster had the lowest rate.

Between 2020 and 2024, there were almost four times as many deaths due to alcohol in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas.