Brief intervention reduces college drinking

College drinking is a big problem in the U.S. It is estimated that 1,800 college students die each year in car accidents and more than 750,000 are involved in alcohol-related physical and sexual assaults. One of the ways people use to tackle this problem is a Brief Motivational Intervention which compares how much students drink to what other students are drinking and aims to correcth their ideas about this. Most students usually think their peers are drinking much more than they actually are leading them to drink more as they attempt to 'keep up' with their peers; past studies have shown that correcting these mistaken ideas can lead to a reduction in drinking. Researchers from the University of Rhode Island studied 1,000 college students beginning in 2004 when they started university. The students who received the Brief Motivational Intervention were significantly less likely to start drinking heavily or experience alcohol-related problems. 28% of the students did not drink at all at the start of the study but for those who were already drinking Brief Motivational Intervention reduced heavy drinking and alcohol problems.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100707152209.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader