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People with gallstones and heavy drinkers are most likely to develop acute pancreatitis, a condition which can be life-threatening, but is treatable.

The latest study found that drinking around a double measure of spirits was enough to increase the risk of suffering the illness - but wine and beer did not appear to have the same effect.

The researchers, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said this may be down to ingredients found in spirits but not in other forms of alcohol.

Health campaigners said the findings could help explain why Scotland, which consumes more spirits per head of population than the rest of the UK, suffers more ill-health due to alcohol misuse.

It is estimated that between 1 per cent and 3 per cent of heavy drinkers - those drinking more than four or five drinks a day - will develop acute pancreatitis over ten to 20 years.

Despite this, many thousands of people are admitted to hospital with the condition each year in the UK and hundreds die.

Previous research has shown that the risk goes up the more people drink, but up until now experts have been unable to determine which type of alcohol creates the most problems.

The Swedish researchers discovered that spirits increased the risk of developing acute pancreatitis, with just one large drink having an effect.

Writing in the British Journal of Surgery, the team analysed decade-long data for 84,601 people aged 46 to 84, of which 513 developed acute pancreatitis.

The results showed that having one drink containing 12g of alcohol - just under a double UK pub measure of spirits - increased the risk by just under 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, consuming 60g of alcohol in one sitting - 7.5 standard UK pub measures of spirits - increased the risk by 52 per cent. But there was no increased risk from wine or beer. The experts believe something in spirits could be causing a problem for drinkers.

Lead author Dr Omid Sadr-Azodi said: "Our study suggests there are constituents in spirits that are not present in wine and beer and they can cause acute pancreatitis, either on their own or in combination with alcohol."

However, a spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association said: "This research is at odds with previous research which found greater prevalence of pancreatitis in drinkers of other drinks. Given that the researchers clearly say that alcohol is not the issue, it is not clear why they then link their findings to spirits when the spirits sector is very broad and different spirits have different properties, many similar to other drinks categories."

Evelyn Gillan, from Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: "We already drink 25 per cent more spirits in Scotland than the rest of the UK. There has been some suggestion over whether our higher levels of health harm in Scotland may be linked to our increased spirit drinking. So this is a concern."