The problem is so serious that bottles of alcohol should carry cigarette-style health warnings, Drs. Susham Gupta and James Warner write in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Since the 1960s, alcohol consumption in Britain has doubled, Warner and Gupta said, warning British residents may become the highest alcohol consumers in Europe within the next decade, The Times of London reported Saturday.

The time lag between alcohol abuse and the onset of dementia means binge drinkers are unaware of the damage they could be causing themselves in later life, Gupta and Warner said.

Researchers have found alcohol may account for as much as one quarter of cases of Alzheimer's disease -- the most common form of dementia, the doctors' reported.