Heavy Drinking may Damage Teenage Brain

New evidence suggests that teenagers who binge drink may damage the “white matter” in their brains. This area of the brain contains nerve fibers and is involved in transmitting messages between brain cells. If it is damaged, it may affect thinking and memory.

White matter has been shown to be damaged in adult alcoholics, but alcohol’s effects in teenagers are less clear. It has been suggested that adolescents may be more susceptible to neurotoxins, such as alcohol, because their brains are still developing.

In the study, published in the online edition of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers performed brain scans in 28 adolescents (age 16-19), half of whom had histories of binge drinking. The MRI scans showed that the white matter was more damaged in binge drinkers compared to their peers who did not drink.

However, these results are preliminary, and the study is limited by its cross-sectional design and small sample size. Additional research is needed to determine how drinking affects the brain.

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Comments

[Ceci]

This is not shocking! Binge drinking among teenagers has been happening for years. Teenagers now play drinking games to see who can get drunk the fastest, which usually leads to blackouts or memory loss. This is obviously causing some damage to the brain. I also believe that dorm life in college contributes to this type of behavior. It is impossible to keep underage kids from drinking, unless we ban alcohol.

[Amy]

Heavy drinking can also contribute to bone loss. It can inhibit the formation of new bone cells, which decreases bone formation and leads to low bone mass. This must be detrimental to teenagers who are still experiencing growth spurts.

[Healthybody]

Adolescents should be well-informed of this information in school. I don’t believe that the majority of kids know the damage that they are doing to their bodies when drinking. If heavy drinking affects memory and thinking, then this will have an impact on SAT scores and overall school performance. Therefore, it could be detrimental to their chances of getting into college. Evidence supports that the brain continues to develop well into the 3rd decade of life. Also, if you start drinking heavily as an adolescent, you are more likely to drink heavily as an adult. This could impinge on your information process and cause you to make harmful decisions.

[kelly]

After reading the statistics about the number of teenagers that consume alcohol, I started to wonder about marketing and advertisements geared toward adolescents. I know that tobacco companies target or at least used to target teenagers in their campaigns. What about alcohol?

[Sarah P.]

Determining the effects of alcohol on the teenage brain is critically important. If further research supports these findings of damage to the white matter, it will hopefully lead the way to a more serious look at how to prevent teenage use of alcohol.

Banning these drinks on college campuses in both dorms and the Greek organizations is one method that should certainly be implemented. But usually these kinds of restrictions only stimulate young people to find ways around them, appealing to the rebelliousness that is a natural part of adolescence. More attention can be paid to educating young people (before they are teenagers) on the risks, showing them visuals of brain damage/deterioration by bringing in young recovering alcoholics who can explain to these immature minds about the damage that can result from drinking. And maybe most important, introduce them to non-harmful ways of exerting their independence, giving them the guidance that can help them make more responsible choices.

[Teresa]

This is valuable research. Young people drink and binge drink out of social pressure, to escape anxiety, to even pretend that they are "adults." Unfortunately, as a society, drinking has become a very significant part of social life. We are more acutely aware when we see someone smoking in a film or on TV. Our consciousness has been raised to the degree that we notice smoking as something not as much a part of the social scene. It is banned in almost all public places in most states. However, drinking is not. It is a part of films and TV and as such becomes a symbol again, of adulthood. Small wonder that teenagers, who are trying out all sorts of behavior as they struggle toward maturity, consider drinking the hallmark of having arrived. Instead of the cigarette held casually in the hand, it is a cocktail, glass of wine or beer. This attempt at sophistication is understandable, but clearly dangerous, and we need a movement such as we had against smoking to rise up to combat this pervasive indulgence in our young people. To expect a teenager under the influence to know better than to binge is unreasonable. I look forward to a broader study and more publicity about the findings.

[Charlie G]

A number of important developments take place in the adolescent brain. An adolescent's brain reaches its adult weight by about age 14, partly because of increased myelination.

As myelination and pruning continue during the teen years, adolescents become more capable of insight, judgment, inhibition, reasoning and social conscience. Increased activity in the frontal lobes enables the adolescent to begin comparing or interrelating several concepts at once.

Myelination of the frontal lobes is not complete until very late in adolescence. Some researchers estimate that frontal-lobe development continues until age 25 to 30. The regions in the frontal lobe that are responsible for judgment, planning, assessing risks and decision-making are the last areas to finish developing.

Synapse formation continues during adolescence, even as pruning is ongoing. The remaining dendrites continue to branch, grow and form new synapses in response to new experiences. Continued social, emotional and cognitive development in adolescence is due, in part, to this ongoing growth in the brain.
This is according to: http://www.fcs.uga.edu/ext/bbb/brainTimeAdolescence.php.

[Hutch]

Those functions are important for being a responsible adult. It's sad and scary to think that you could have someone who looks totally normal on the outside but has not allowed themselves to fully develop. People lacking insight, judgment, inhibition, reasoning and social conscience, who have trouble comparing or interrelating several concepts at once are going to have trouble being productive adults.

[Jorge M]

Binge drinking is basically drinking with the intention of getting drunk. The 5/4 definition of binge drinking is consuming 5 or more drinks for a male or 4 or more drinks for a female at one occasion. Other definitions define binge drinking as reaching a blood-alcohol content of 0.08% or higher.

[Jorge M]

The dangers with binge drinking are due to the high blood-alcohol content that binge drinking causes. The effects of alcohol on the brain are due to the fact that it can cross the blood-brain-barrier.The high blood-alcohol concentrations could cause increased brain damage. Lower blood-alcohol levels, even if more chronic, might cause less damage.

[Lilian]

Besides the risks to brain development, alcohol use in children and adolescents also increases the risk that they will use other illegal drugs (http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/myths-alcohol.html).

[Lilian]

The study says that alcohol consumption affected the white matter. The brain has gray matter and white matter. Using a computer network as an analogy, the gray matter can be thought of as the actual computers themselves, whereas the white matter represents the network cables connecting the computers together. The white matter is white because of the fatty substance (myelin) that surrounds the nerve fibers (axons). This myelin is found in almost all long nerve fibers and acts as an electrical insulation. This is important because it allows the messages to pass quickly from place to place. If the white matter is damaged and all of these connections are lacking and information is not being processed properly, it is possible to see how the mental maturation process could be inhibited by drinking.

[Bax]

Not only might alcohol affect the developing brain, but statistics also clearly show that the younger a child is when he or she begins drinking, the more likely he/she is to develop problems with alcohol during adulthood. According to a report in the Journal of Substance Abuse, more than 40% of individuals who start drinking before the age of 13 will develop alcohol abuse problems later in life (Grant, BF, & Dawson, DA. 9:103-110, 1997). Not only does limiting a child's access to alcohol improve their cognitive development, it also reduces the risk that they will become alcoholics as adults.

[Sally M]

Children of alcoholics are four times more likely than other children to become alcoholics, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, but environmental factors could be a factor in many of those cases. A study in Sweden followed alcohol use in twins who were adopted as children and reared apart. The incidence of alcoholism was slightly higher among people who were exposed to alcoholism only through their adoptive families. However, it was dramatically higher among the twins whose biological fathers were alcoholics, regardless of the presence of alcoholism in their adoptive families. The need to educate this high risk group on the dangers of alcohol abuse is great. http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/genetics/a/aa990517.htm

[Ben Lee]

It was difficult to find information about the ability of the teenage liver to process alcohol. However, just the fact the adolescents are physically smaller than adults means that one drink will affect them more than an adult. Five drinks for a 15-year-old is going to be far more dangerous than for a 40-year-old.

[B Sarge]

I guess some good news is that the adolescent brain is still somewhat plastic and can continue to make connections. The brain in general (and especially a child's brain) can adapt to white matter damage by finding alternative routes that bypass the damaged white matter areas and can therefore maintain good connections between the various areas of gray matter. But repeated binge drinking could damage these new connections.

[B B]

One can assume the affects of drinking would be more severe in the case of young women compared to young men.

First, women have lower total body water content than men of comparable size. After alcohol is consumed, it diffuses uniformly into all body water, both inside and outside cells. Because of their smaller quantity of body water, women achieve higher concentrations of alcohol in their blood than men after drinking equivalent amounts of alcohol.

Second, diminished activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (the primary enzyme involved in the metabolism of alcohol) in the stomach also may contribute to the gender-related differences in blood alcohol concentrations and a woman's heightened vulnerability to the physiological consequences of drinking. http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa10.htm

[Mike P.]

I don't think that banning alcohol will be an effective solution to stop the binge drinking of young people. Honestly, anything that is banned on a college campus is usually available through some means. I think young people are not well educated on the effects of binge drinking. All that most of them really know is that they could get in trouble with the school or police if they get in any alcohol-related trouble. I don’t think teenagers are aware of what binge drinking does to their bodies. From my own experience, it was always about having fun, and no one really knew what sort of damage they were doing to their bodies. Also, there wasn’t any information readily available about health consequences of drinking in young people. Education should precede any banning or regulations for them to be truly effective.

[Stef]

Charlie, thanks for bring up those points about the effects of binge drinking on decision making. I never really thought of the consequences in that area! It is scary to think that drinking can lead to such long-term effects in the areas of reasoning and judgment and that this damage is sometimes irreversible.

[Kevin]

One of the first things you're introduced to when you enter college is drinking and partying. I agree with the others and think that educating college students is very important. When I was a freshman in college, I had to take an online alcohol/substance abuse program course. Since it was a mandatory, everyone got a chance to review the information. What made this program different was that it pointed out both the short- and long-term consequences of binge drinking, the latter which is often forgotten about. These long-term consequences can have serious health effects and impact the functioning of the brain. I hope more research will come out, but I hope the information gets to the teenagers who need to know about the dangers of binge drinking.

[MTT]

In response to Ceci's original comment, in my opinion, it is dangerous to take the attitude that we can't stop kids from drinking. Just last night our middle school had a forum to discuss how many students experiment with drugs and alcohol at age 11 and up. If we take the attitude that "nothing can be done," the problem is sure to grow, and the consequences will be steep. I think education is a big part of the answer, but parents have to step in and help their kids understand the consequences. Personal responsibility has gone out the window in the U.S., and it is up to parents not to leave these important discussions to educators. Parents should also keep in mind the message they send to kids about drinking based on what they're modeling at home. It's not just about talk.

[Kara]

Mike, I agree that banning alcohol is not the solution. I mean, look at how well abstinence-based sex education has worked. Growing, curious minds always want to know everything about anything that is being prohibited. Kids are a lot smarter than we usually give them credit for, but their common sense is not well-honed. I think a freshman course in responsible drinking might be a better idea.

[alcoholism teenager]

I agree. Too much alcohol can damage the brain. It's better to inform the teens about the consequences of drinking too much alcohol. It can destroy their brains and lives.

[BD]

Oh the woes of alcohol abuse. When will we ever learn? Of course binge drinking causes some sort of brain damage in a developing teenager's brain. The most brain damage it can cause though involves convincing the teenager that drinking heavily with friends is the cool thing to do. Once they go down that road, it may be too late by time they realize what a terrible mistake it is that they have made. Parents need to be extremely proactive when it comes to educating their teens about the perils of alcohol and its abuse. It amazes me the older I get that some of my peers still think that "bar-crawling" and "blacking out" is commonplace and a normal thing to be doing. I guess wisdom doesn't come to all with age.

[Bobby]

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila…server error? I have to agree that banning alcohol (EtOH) will solve nothing; look at what happen during the Prohibition Act of 1920 -- people made their own alcohol. However, there was a positive that came with the Prohibition Act that there was a decrease in the number of people suffering from liver failure…and then it went right back up when alcohol was made legal again. I think in an effort to lessen the “pressure” of drinking on teenagers we should outlaw alcohol commercials in print and broadcast and censor shows where alcohol is made to look like fun…YES even the Super Bowl beer commercials. If you remove the stimulus, then the drive or want will eventually go away, and if you supplement with education programs that show the long-term morbidities then maybe teenage drinking will go down? What do you guys think?

[T Yorke]

It comes as no surprise that heavy drinking may damage teenage brains. What interests me is the extent of this damage and if it is permanent or not. No matter what the extent is, though, I do not think that trying to regulate teenage drinking is the answer. The more regulations we impose on our society, especially teenagers, the more autonomy we take away from them, and this only teaches them to think less and less for themselves.

It would be interesting if future research could find any possible correlation with heavy teenage drinking increasing the risk of developing inflammatory diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis which affect white matter in the brain. I want to see some sort of actual clinical consequences of alcohol-related white matter brain damage, and until none are found I don’t think the scientific community should get too excited about research like this.

[John Wheelwright]

Heavy drinking may damage the teen brain, but it’s okay if for adults? There are no benefits for heavy drinking in anyone, not just children. Alcohol in moderation seems to produce positive benefits, and anything taken to excess seems to have detrimental effects. (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/alcohol/index.html)

Banning drinking is not the answer; it would only lead to heavier binge drinking— prohibition didn’t work out so well, did it? I agree with Mike P. that the most effective way to make teens aware of what they are doing to their bodies is education.

[Yvon]

There are many issues that surround alcohol intake by adolescents. Aside from the major safety concerns associated with drinking and driving, these health concerns of brain damage will send a clear message to young people that underage drinking can be dangerous. Drinking at such a young age will increase the likelihood that people will become addicted to the effects of alcohol and further promote damage to the body over the years. I think once more firm conclusions can be made based on higher level trials, such information can be incorporated into the learning system for adolescents.