Scientific understanding of how alcohol produces reactions that vary across individuals from pleasurable to deadly requires clear observation of the phenomena and definitional agreement about what is observed. The public health concerns about young adult binge drinking have helped to motivate refinement of its definition. The implications of the empirical framework outlined here can be used to evaluate the proposed quantities, time-frame, and consumption frequencies as factors that may contribute to subsequent alcohol-related problems. The proposed binge-drinking definition should therefore help provide the operational utility that will facilitate inferences across studies.
