The inclusion of a past time-frame to quantify frequency of binging episodes is necessary to differentiate “binge drinking” from “alcoholism” or “alcohol dependence.” This temporal aspect of a binge-drinking pattern has been variably defined as the past week (Kokavec & Crowe, 1999), past 2 weeks (Wechsler et al., 1994), past 30 days/month (Okoro et al., 2004; SAMHSA, 2007; Zeigler et al., 2005), past 6 months (Hartley, Elsabagh, & File, 2004; Townshend & Duka, 2002, 2005; Weissenborn & Duka, 2003), and past year (Cranford, McCabe, & Boyd, 2006). These different time-frames emphasize various aspects of binge-drinking patterns, but their use inhibits direct comparison among findings.
