Teen Binge Drinking May Cause Brain DamageUpdated: 29 minutes ago
Print Text Size E-mail MoreMichelle Ruiz


Sphere (Jan. 25) -- Teen binge drinking may do more than just get you grounded. A recent study shows adolescent drinking can cause irreversible brain damage.

The study, published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, found damaged nerve tissue in the brains of teens who drank. Researchers believe the damage translated to teens' test results, which showed shortened attention spans in boys, difficulty comprehending and interpreting visual information among girls and memory damage in both genders.

Although it may seem alarming that teen binge drinking could permanently affect the brain, the leader of the study, neuroscientist Susan Tapert of the University of California, San Diego, says alcohol is toxic for the still-developing teenage brain.

"The adolescent brain is still undergoing several maturational processes that render it more vulnerable to some of the effects of substances," Tapert told National Public Radio.

Tapert and her team examined 12- to 14-year-olds described as drinking "heavily" -- consuming four or five drinks per occasion, two or three times a month. Even Tapert did not expect the study to find that brain damage occurred in teens who drank only a few times monthly.

"These results were actually surprising to me because the binge-drinking kids hadn't, in fact, engaged in a great deal of binge drinking," she said. "They were drinking on average once or twice a month, but when they did drink, it was to a relatively high quantity of at least four or five drinks an occasion."

The study showed damaged nerve tissue, or "white matter," among the binge-drinking teens. According to Tapert, there were "dings" in the vital tissue that relays information across brain cells.

For teens of both sexes, damaged brain tissue meant a decline in thought and memory functions. According to the study, girls performed more poorly on mathematics and engineering, while boys suffered on tests of their attention spans.

"The magnitude of the difference is 10 percent," Tapert said. "I like to think of it as the difference between an A and a B."

The research serves as a warning for teens who seem to have a higher toleration for the "hangover" aspects of binge drinking, including nausea.

"It makes it easier to consume higher amounts and enjoy some of the positive aspects," University of Pittsburgh brain researcher Ron Dahl told NPR. "But, of course, that also creates a liability for the spiral of addiction and binge use of these substances."

http://www.sphere.com/health/article/teen-binge-drinking-may-cause-brain-damage/19330191

this study is not true
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Same goes for marijuana, which is another reason not to legalize it:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090202175105.htm

http://www.independent.ie/health/cannabis-far-more-toxic-to-the-adolescent-brain-1211216.html

I agree I think that children should be breast fed for longer periods of time and that women should flaunt their assets so we have less breast fetishism in this country! That and I enjoy boobs.