Binge drinking is causing young Scottish women to develop life-threatening alcoholic liver disease in their 20s, doctors have warned. 

Young females are suffering from liver damage earlier in life than men, and some girls have been admitted to hospital with the problem at the age of 16. 

And shocking figures revealed by a groundbreaking study show the devastating toll binge drinking is taking on the Scottish population. 

It found more than 35,000 people have been diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease in Scotland after being rushed to hospital since 1991. 

Of these, 17 per cent died before they were discharged and more than half were dead within five years. 

The youngest female to lose her life was just 17. 

The survivors were readmitted to hospital an average of three times a year - staying for than a week each time, which cost £587 per day. 

Co-author of the research Dr Mathis Heydtmann, a gastroenterologist and liver specialist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, said hospital staff in the west of Scotland were so used to seeing abnormal liver tests they had become "immune" to their significance. 

He added: "Some people are fed up with seeing people again and again because they have been told 100 times you need to stop drinking and they still come back in. 

"It makes it difficult for people to be as empathetic as they were the first time." 

In contrast to the rest of western Europe, Scotland has seen the number of cases of liver cirrhosis rise dramatically since the 1970s. 

Dr Heydtmann said: "With the increase, GPs and other specialists have a resistance to referring patients to us because they know we will be flooded. 

"Since I came to Scotland in 2007 the work has more than doubled." 

But this has meant some patients with potential liver damage were not being referred for further investigation until they became seriously ill. 

The study looked at the 35,208 patients diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease after being hospitalised between 1991 and 2011. 

One third of the patients were female with a median age of 53.8. 

More than 10 per cent of these women were in their 30s, while more than a quarter were in their 40s when the full level of liver damage was discovered. 

Meanwhile, the median age for male patients was 54.7 and a smaller number were under the age of 40. 

Dr Heydtmann said "worryingly" women were now being rushed to hospital with alcoholic liver disease earlier in life.

He believes the reasons for this could be a combination of changes to drink culture with girls going out more at a younger age and alcohol taking a heavier toll on women. 

And the popularity of alcopops in the 1990s could also be a factor. 

While the problem is more common in deprived areas, Dr Heydtmann said the patients came from across the social spectrum. 

He said: "It can happen to anyone in the right circumstances." 

The study found the length of a typical hospital stay has dropped, but patients are more likely to be re-admitted. 

Dr Heydtmann said since 2011 figures suggest incidence of alcoholic liver disease have stabilised but remain much worse than 20 years ago.