Heavy Drinking Linked to High Risk Sexual Behavior

Young adults who are dependent upon alcohol are at a greater risk for having more sexual partners, said researchers. The sheer fact that they are at risk of having more sexual partners also increases the likelihood of their contracting a sexually transmitted disease, developing other complications, or having an unplanned pregnancy.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis detailed their findings in a recent press release. They determined that when someone has been clinically diagnosed as having alcohol dependence, there is also the probability that they have had sex with many people.

Many, many people. Lots of people. An extraordinarily high number of people.

How many is "extraordinarily high?" Amazingly, researchers determined that those young people who are dependent upon alcohol were found to have as many as 50 or 100 different sexual partners.

"We categorized these subjects according to three levels of alcohol involvement - non-dependent, problem drinking and alcohol dependent - and demonstrated how a stepwise increase from non-dependence to problematic alcohol use to alcohol dependence is associated with a higher number of sexual partners. We found that 22 percent of the non-dependent people had 10 or more partners, compared to 31 percent of problem drinkers and 45 percent of those who were alcohol dependent," said Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, Ph.D., research instructor in the Department of Psychiatry.

In addition to having problems with alcohol, or an official diagnosis of alcohol dependence, researchers also determined that young people who are diagnosed with a conduct disorder also have a high number of sexual partners.

Of the three, their research was clear in that alcohol dependence produced the highest number of sexual partners.

It is probably no surprise to the average person to learn that drinking too much alcohol harms the body. It can be harmful physically and mentally.