Drinking alcohol at a young age, while the brain is still forming, causes cognitive and structural damage which could be irreversible.
“Studies have proven that alcohol causes brain atrophy,” said Dr. Nicole Gorman, a pediatrician at Village Pediatrics in Westport. “The bottom line is that alcohol stops brain cells from growing.”
Adolescence is the time when the hippocampus, the pre-frontal area of the brain located behind the forehead, is developing significant functions. These include forming its capacity for memory, thinking clearly, impulse control, spatial learning, planning and decision making. After spending more than two decades of analyzing the effects of alcohol on adolescents, the American Medical Association concurs that alcohol can produce both short term and, in many cases, long term damage.
Research studies concluded that teens who drink alcohol score considerably lower on tests involving their cognitive skills. These studies looked at their ability to process general information, including use of vocabulary and verbal and non-verbal information recall.
What is perhaps most alarming is that, according to its Web site, the brain might not be able to “catch up” once this crucial development phase is disrupted and altered by the presence of alcohol.
Dr. Joseph Russo of the Recovery Center of Westport explains that once the brain’s biochemical circuits get “hard-wired,” it’s difficult to alleviate the negative effects of substance abuse.
His colleague, Clarisse Loughrin, a substance abuse counselor, agreed. “The longer someone waits to start treatment the longer it will take,” she said. “And, when you start drinking and drugging at a younger age, the damage is greater and takes even longer.”
Along with physical consequences, alcohol also adversely affects a young person’s emotional growth. “Alcohol has a lot of depressive effects,” said Gorman. “In our practice, we already see many cases of depression in young people.” Teens who are suffering from depression might try to self-medicate themselves by binge drinking. Assuming that they are alleviating unwanted feelings, they are actually adding to their problem because alcohol is, in fact, a depressant.
Conversely, when people are abusing alcohol and drugs, it is more difficult to diagnose clinical depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. Studies have also linked underage drinking with a rise in violent behaviors and suicidal thoughts.
Gorman said that she also has young patients who come to her complaining of sleep disorders. However, this problem, too, is exacerbated by drinking alcohol”Someone might think that a drink or two will help them to sleep better but it’s actually only going to make things worse,” she said.
Characterized by risk-taking behaviors and low impulse control, adolescence is often a time when young people make poor behavioral choices. In attempting to break away from their parents and the embark on process of self actualization, teens could readily view drinking as a benign activity. In their struggle for independence, they defy parental authority with proclamations of “everyone is doing it” and “it won’t hurt me.”
Gorman cautions parents, though, about being “naive” and mistakenly thinking that an honors student or otherwise “good kid” could not be indulging in risky behaviors. “Alcohol should be placed in a locked place where kids do not have access to it,” Gorman said.
Source: www.westport-news.com 2nd Dec. 2009