Heavy regular binge drinking is associated with adverse effects on neurologic, cardiac, gastrointestinal, hematologic, immune, and musculoskeletal organ systems as well as increasing the risk of alcohol induced psychiatric disorders.

[9] A 2020 study found that even a single episode of binge drinking can lead to atrophy of the brain's corpus callosum, from which damage was still detectable by an MRI scanner five weeks later.

[18] When BEACH (Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health) conducted a study which gathered information of people over the age of 18, it defined binge drinkers as those who consumed six or more standard drinks on one occasion whether that be weekly or monthly.

[22] High-intensity drinking is associated with unhealthful behaviors such as front-loading (trying to get drunk as fast as possible)[23] and with harmful outcomes such as impaired driving and a higher risk of dying that day.

[27] This is particularly interesting, as drinking for the sole purpose of getting drunk remains a major health and social problem on college campuses across the United States.

[39] Repeated episodes of excessive drinking, especially at an early age, are thought to cause a profound increase in the risk of developing an alcohol-related disorder (ICD-10, harmful use/dependence syndrome).

Several studies have been conducted to discover if there is a link between binge drinking in adolescent years and becoming a chronic alcohol consumer when they transition into adulthood.

Studies have shown that both male and female students that were associated with Greek organizations were more likely to develop Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in comparison to their non-Greek counterparts.

Studies in adolescents have shown that regular binge drinking may cause long-lasting cognitive impairments, though the threshold needed to produce significant effects remains unclear.

Binge drinking and alcoholics who have undergone multiple detoxifications is associated with an inability to interpret facial expressions properly; this is believed to be due to kindling of the amygdala with resultant distortion of neurotransmission.

[16] Binge drinking regimes are associated with causing an imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory amino acids and changes in monoamines release in the central nervous system, which increases neurotoxicity and may result in cognitive impairments, psychological problems and in long-term heavy binge drinkers may cause irreversible brain damage in both adolescents and adults.

[56] Extrapolation from animal studies to humans is notoriously difficult,[57] and a review by the group Choose Responsibility concluded that alcohol's long-term damage to cognitive processes was the same regardless of whether heavy drinking commenced during adolescence or later.

Alcohol has definite long-term adverse effects on the fetus, in particular impaired attentional skills and may lead to psychiatric disorders when the child grows up.

[1] In countries where binge drinking is commonplace, rates of sudden death on the weekend in young adults and middle aged people increase significantly.

[66] Binge drinking increases cardiovascular toxicity due to its adverse effects on the electrical conduction system of the heart and the process of atherothrombosis.

A study in rats found that a heavy two-day drinking binge caused extensive neurodegeneration in the entorhinal cortex with resultant learning deficits.

Repeated acute withdrawal from alcohol, which occurs in heavy binge drinkers, has been shown in several studies to be associated with cognitive deficits as a result of neural kindling; neural kindling due to repeated withdrawals is believed to be the mechanism of cognitive damage in both binge drinkers and alcoholics.

[27] Blackouts, a form of amnesia that occurs in binge drinkers may be due to suppressed hippocampus function with rebound NMDA (glutamate) activity combined with excessive glucocorticoid release induced by the stress of repeated intoxication followed by acute withdrawal/abstinence is the proposed mechanism of neural kindling leading to neurotoxicity of structures involved in learning and memory within the brain of binge drinkers.

[27] Alcohol suppresses brain function during intoxication; but upon withdrawal rebound effects occur in the glutamate/NMDA system and with excess glutamate activity glucocorticoid release; due to the repeated intoxication, followed by acute withdrawal, a neurotoxic effect that damages the central nervous system develops, leading to persisting impairments in verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities as well as impairment of spatial orientation.

According to one review of the literature, if the developmental stage of adolescence is similar to the developmental stage of the fetus with regard to sensitivity to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol, and if long-lasting or permanent damage to the brain occurs similar to what animal studies suggest, then this represents a major public health issue due to the high levels of alcohol use by adolescents.

[74] Indeed, alcohol can affect the remodeling and functional changes in synaptic plasticity and neuronal connectivity in different brain regions that occurs during adolescence (see this related article).

[75] For the purpose of identifying an alcohol use disorder when assessing binge drinking, using a time frame of the past 6 months eliminates false negatives.

[78] In 2006, the Wisconsin Initiative to Promote Healthy Lifestyles implemented a program that helps primary care physicians identify and address binge drinking problems in patients.

[17] Due to the risks especially in adolescents, of cognitive impairments and possible irreversible brain damage associated with binge drinking, urgent action has been recommended.

[54] There is some evidence that interventions by employers such as, health and lifestyle checks, psychosocial skills training and peer referral, can reduce the level of binge drinking.

[92] An inference drawn in this study is that evidence-based policy strategies and clinical preventive services may effectively reduce binge drinking without requiring addiction treatment in most cases.

In the case of Asians their low level of binge drinking may be due to the presence of the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene (ALDH2, Chromosome 12) in many (but by no means the vast majority) that results in poor metabolism of alcohol, which leads to severe adverse effects such as facial flushing.

[97] Other factors that have been found to correlate with higher levels of binge drinking include low religiosity, marijuana use, living with roommates, and cigarette use.

[108] Researchers from Columbia and Yale found the discrepancy could be due to the fact men release more dopamine during alcohol consumption than women.

One version states that jenever (or Dutch gin) was used by English soldiers for its calming effects before battle, and for its purported warming properties on the body in cold weather.