National study finds increase in college binge drinking .
The survey found that stepped-up efforts by college administrators in recent years to address the problem of binge drinking have not resulted in decreases in binge drinking behavior. The Harvard study found that the number of survey respondents whose drinking patterns constituted frequent binge drinking increased from 20 percent in a similar 1993 survey to 23 percent in 1999. The survey defined binge drinkers as men who had five or more drinks in a row at least once in the two weeks prior to survey completion and women who had four or more drinks in a row at least once during that period. Frequent binge drinkers consumed these amounts at least three times during the two-week time period. The Harvard School of Public Health administered previous surveys in 1993 and 1997.