(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-06 19:05

Mixing alcohol with energy drinks such as Red Bull is like 'mixing cocaine with heroin', a drugs expert had claimed.

Don Serratt, founder of British drug treatment centre Life Works, said mixing extreme quantities of the stimulant caffeine with the depressant alchol was 'a very dangerous cocktail'.

He was responding to a study which found young adults were twice as likely to be hurt and require medical attention and twice as likely to travel with a drunk driver if they had the cocktail, than those who did not mix their drinks.

In the first study of its kind, American researchers questioned 4,271 students from 10 U.S. universities about their drinking habits and the consequences.

They found, compared to those who did not mix caffeine and alcohol they had almost double the risk of being taken advantage of sexually.

In a typical drinking session, they drank up to 36 per cent more than the other students, and they also reported twice as many episodes of weekly drunkenness.

Study leader Dr Mary Claire O'Brien, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre in New Carolina, said: "We knew anecdotally - from speaking with students, and from researching internet blogs and websites - that college students mix energy drinks and alcohol in order to drink more, and to drink longer.

"But we were surprised that the risk of serious and potentially deadly consequences is so much higher for those who mixed energy drinks with alcohol, even when we adjusted for the amount of alcohol."

Mixing caffeine with alcohol was like "getting into a car and stepping on the gas pedal and the brake at the same time", said Dr O'Brien.

A Red Bull spokeswoman said: "We cannot comment on the findings of the American public health report until we have looked at it in detail.

"Until then, we can only state what we have always said, which is to drink Red Bull responsibly."

The findings were reported at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Washington DC.