Pre-Partying Increases Heavy Drinking & Has Serious Unintended Consequences

Getting together for a few drinks with friends before heading out on the town has become increasingly popular among young people. Pre-partying is a pretty common occurrence on most college campuses where teens drink before heading out to the main party or social event of the night. It’s estimated that nearly half of the drinking that takes place in a single night happens at pre-parties.


A new study conducted by Swiss researchers and published in the November 2012 journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, shows that young people who drink before they go out to another more formal setting, tend to drink twice as much, which doubles the odds of experiencing serious unintended consequences.

A researcher at Addiction Switzerland and corresponding author of the study, Florian Labhart, warns that pre-drinking is often the start of the problem for those who drink before they go out, “Pre-drinking is likely to lead people to cumulate two normal drinking occasions – one off-premise followed by one on-premise – and generally results in excessive alcohol consumption.”

For the study, scientists monitored the drinking habits of 183 young adults (97 women and 86 men), all about 23 years old, from three colleges or universities in Switzerland. They found that pre-drinkers tend to drink faster and consume more, which increases blood alcohol levels and leads to a greater risk of drinking related problems.

Results of the study showed that pre-drinking led to specific risky outcomes including:

• Hangovers: reported by 40 percent of men, 36 percent of women

• Blackouts: reported by 12 percent of men, 7 percent of women

• Unplanned substance use: reported by 21 percent of men, 12 percent of women

• Unintended or unprotected sex: reported by 8 percent of men, 5 percent of women

• Injury of self or others: reported by 6 percent of men, 3 percent of women

• Property damage: reported by 4 percent of men

Pre-drinking is also common among underage drinkers in the United States because of the higher legal drinking age. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education, teens who pre-drink tend to drink more and in larger quantities before they go to a club or bar because they consider it a safe way to get buzzed in a familiar environment, the cost is lower, and because they cannot legally buy alcohol in those establishments.

Researchers recommend that partygoers become more conscious of their drinking habits, keep track of the number of drinks they’ve had, and avoid drinking games or chugging contests to help reduce the chances of serious negative outcomes. The findings of this and other studies on pre-partying point to the need for educational programs and developing prevention methods in the community and on college campuses to help reduce risky behavior of over-drinking.