Half of male students induce vomiting after booze sessions

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Over half of male university students make themselves vomit after bingeing on alcohol.

New research by Canterbury University psychologist Natalie Blackmore found 57.58 per cent of men and 42.26 per cent of women students reported self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol.

The findings, in Blackmore's master of science thesis, also showed many who self-induced vomiting believed it was acceptable, especially among men.

Women were more likely to have symptoms of anorexia, bulimia and depression, while men were more likely to be doing it to carry on drinking.

"For males, self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol was related to substance abuse whereas, for females, the behaviour may be more related to disordered eating," the research found.

Christchurch youth health specialist Sue Bagshaw was amazed by the high figures.

"I'd certainly heard of it, and it was usually in the context of, 'oh, I can drink some more', but I hadn't realised it was so widespread."

The main danger was that if it was done frequently, people would lose potassium, which could cause the heart to stop.

"If you have really unrestrained, really violent vomiting, you can actually tear the lining of your oesophagus and you can vomit up blood," Bagshaw said.

"I think there is a theory around that if you don't have so much alcohol inside you, you won't get so much of a hangover.

"But I think that's an old wives' tale."

If people felt better after vomiting, it would just be a placebo effect, she said. The study covered 102 male and 159 female university students aged 17 to 35. Overall, 90.04 per cent of the sample reported that they drank alcohol.

The average age that drinking started was 14.84. The average number of standard drinks men had in one sitting was 6.38 and for women it was 4.12 drinks.

One man told researchers he had an average of 30 standard drinks per session.

Blackmore's thesis said up to 59.8 per cent of female students had engaged in "social bulimia" where they intentionally vomited during a drinking session.

Alcohol Drug Association of New Zealand chief executive Cate Kearney said she was bemused by the finding as she was not aware of a problem with self-induced vomiting.