Alcohol may have significant and irreversible effects on the brains of children, adolescents, and young adults

Two decades of research show that alcohol use has even greater negative effects on brain development in children, adolescents, and young adults than had been previously thought, according to a special report released by the American Medical Association.

The report, entitled “Harmful Consequences of Alcohol Use of the Brains of Children, Adolescents, and College Students,” which details anatomical differences in the brains of young drinkers compared with non-alcohol users of the same age, suggests that some of the structural changes observed with magnetic resonance imaging may be irreversible.

The public health consequences in the U.S. are clear: According to the report, the average age of a youth's first drink is 12 years, and that nearly 20 percent of all 12- to 20-year-olds report being binge drinkers.

In the current study, American researchers compared magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brains of 14- to 21-year-olds who abused alcohol with those of people of the same age who did not use alcohol; the people who abused alcohol had about a 10 percent smaller volume in the hippocampus, a significant, possibly irreversible reduction.

The investigators found that alcohol users scored worse on vocabulary, memory retrieval and other tests. In addition, they were more likely to do poorly in school, suffer emotional problems, and attempt suicide.

Even occasional heavy drinking (binge drinking) was found to enhance the
possibility of injury in younger brains, proving that the choices children and adolescents and their families and peer groups make about alcohol may have very long-term consequences.



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