Since the beginning of 2012, the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention reported nearly one in six adults participate in binge drinking four times a month. The largest groups of binge drinkers are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old. New research from Simon Fraser University found an increasingly new popular form of binge drinking in what scholars coined "drunkorexia."

The CDC reported in 2006 binge drinking cost the average person $746, which includes health care expenses, crime and lost of productivity and accounts for 54 different injuries and diseases including car-related accidents, violence and sexually transmitted diseases.

Drunkorexia is when young women, and sometimes men, limit their amount of food consumption in order to reserve calories for consuming large amounts of alcohol at a time.

According to Daniella Sieukaran, a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, who is currently pursuing a degree in a combined MA/PhD in clinical psychology, found this combination of alcohol abuse and dieting can lead to greater alcohol-related risky behaviors, such as engaging in unprotected sex after drinking and alcohol overdose.

The study comprised of 227 York University students between the ages of 17 and 21. Sieukaran surveyed diet and drinking habits at the beginning and end of a four-month period.

Her study demonstrated there are three types of disordered eating, which includes dieting, emotional eating and eating response to external stimuli instead of hunger. Out of all three, dieting was linked to an increase in alcohol-related risk behaviors.

“With the other types of disordered eating, there was actually a decrease in those types of behaviors,” Sieukaran said “So there’s a real connection between dieting and heavy drinking.”

Sieukaran also stated "It’s a special group of drinkers that we should be focusing on in terms of prevention and treatment programs.”

Sieukaran presented her research at the Canadian Psychological Association's 73rd annual convention in Halifax.