WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Gastrointestinal complications from alcohol are increasing among adolescents and young adults, according to a research letter published online Feb. 27 in JAMA Network Open.

Oril Chapman, M.D., from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues described the epidemiology of incident emergency department or inpatient encounters for end-organ complications from alcohol among 11,508 adolescents and young adults (aged 13 to 39 years) from 2003 to 2021.

The researchers found that most identified cases were male (64 percent). Complications involving the pancreas were more frequent than liver-related complications (29 versus 19 percent), including acute pancreatitis (92 percent). The incidence of pancreatitis increased by 7 percent per year in men and 12 percent per year in women, while liver-related complications increased by 6 percent per year in men and 9 percent per year in women.

“These findings underscore the importance of gastroenterologists in caring for individuals with harmful alcohol use and support the integration of addiction medicine into gastroenterology training along with consideration for multidisciplinary gastroenterology-addiction medicine clinics,” the authors write. “Future research to understand these observations and evaluations in other age groups is urgently needed.”

One author disclosed financial ties to Olympus, Pendopharm, Vantage Endoscopy, and Pentax.

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