Teen Drinking Affects BrainMay 22, 2001
Research Summary
A new study shows that heavy drinking among adolescents could be dangerous for the still-developing brain, HealthScout reported May 13."The frontal lobe, where our brain does things like planning and problem-solving and judgment, is still developing until we turn 16," said Dr. Susan Tapert, a psychiatric research fellow at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). "Drinking heavily during this time could mean life-long problems."
Tapert and colleagues arrived at their conclusions after conducting a variety of thinking and memory tests on 15- and 16-year-old problem drinkers and non-drinkers.
"The alcoholics performed more poorly in trying to remember the information we had just taught them," Tapert said. "While most of the non-drinking kids remembered 95 percent of the information, the drinkers remembered only 85 percent. That would be the difference between an A and B grade or a C and D."
Researchers found that problems with memory intensified if adolescents continued drinking throughout their teen years.
The researchers also tested women aged 18 to 25 who had been drinking heavily since adolescence. The results were compared to a group of non-drinkers of the same age.
"The brains of the alcohol-dependent women showed less use of oxygen in some parts of the brain that are critical to working memory and the ability to work with information you are holding onto in your mind -- like doing math in your head," Tapert said.
She added, "The alcoholics also showed less use of oxygen in regions of the brain important for tasks like doing mechanical things or using a map. We didn't have to look hard to see these differences."
The study's findings are published in the February 2001 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
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