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Science Image: A college girl drinks beer through a funnel and pipe as thousands of college-age students gather on the infield in a traditional display of drunken fun on the day of the Preakness Stakes horse race at the Pimlico track in Baltimore, Maryland, May 15, 2004. The earlier a person begins to binge drink, the stronger the tie to poor decision-making skills, Dr. Anna E. Goudriaan and colleagues from the University of Missouri-Columbia say in a report
Heavy-drinking college kids make worse decisions  A college girl drinks beer through a funnel and pipe as thousands of college-age students gather on the infield in a traditional display of drunken fun on the day of the Preakness Stakes horse race at the Pimlico track in Baltimore, Maryland, May 15, 2004. The earlier a person begins to binge drink, the stronger the tie to poor decision-making skills, Dr. Anna E. Goudriaan and colleagues from the University of Missouri-Columbia say in a report. REUTERS/Jason Reed

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young adults who binge drink frequently are more likely to show disadvantageous decision-making patterns than their peers who don't drink as heavily, a new study shows.

However, the study wasn't able to demonstrate which came first -- a bad approach to decision-making or a tendency to drink heavily.

Adolescence and early adulthood are both a time when many people drink heavily and a key period for making important life decisions,