• Alcohol kills developing brain cells
• Early alcohol use can cause a change in brain wiring
• Alcohol can disrupt the ability to learn life skills
• Alcohol affects teenagers’ ability to achieve at school
• Alcohol takes a greater toll on brain development in those under 21 than in any other age group
• There is a strong connection between alcohol consumption, self-harm, and suicide
• Double trouble
• Parents can influence the drinking patterns of their children
• Parents who allow their children small amounts of alcohol in an attempt to instill safe drinking habits maybe setting them on the path to becoming binge drinkers

Alcohol kills developing brain cells

The brain does not finish developing for males until around 24, and for females around 22 years. We know the adolescent brain is designed to learn, but this plasticity also renders it particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of alcohol.

Research reveals that the brain goes through dynamic changes during adolescence and that alcohol intake can seriously damage long and short-term growth processes during this time. In the short-term, moderate drinking impairs learning and memory far more in youth than in adults.

Since the development of MRI (multiple resonance imaging) scientists are able to measure changes in the brain, and provide new insights into what actually happens to the brain, under the influence of alcohol. New research has provided more information on young people and their developing brains. In line with such research, it is no accident that some western countries e.g. America have set the age of 21 as the legal age to drink.

Source: Brown SA & Tapert SF 2004 “Adolescence and the trajectory of alcohol use: basic to clinical studies.“ Annals of the New York Academy of sciences, 1021 234-44”

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Early alcohol use can cause a change in brain wiring

Young people are quick to learn. While their brains are still developing, they are developing new pathways. These brain pathways can change negatively in response to alcohol at this particularly vulnerable time, possibly hard-wiring the brain with a predisposition to crave alcohol.

‘This change in the wiring of the brain indicates that early exposure to alcohol somehow changes the reward pathway so this adolescent, as an adult, finds alcohol more rewarding than do those adults who did not drink as adolescents. That strong reward feeling can lead to alcohol abuse problems’

Source: Dr Jamie Diaz –Granados Associate professor and interim chair of the psychology and neuroscience department at Baylor.

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Early alcohol use can cause a change in brain wiring

The adolescent brain is a work in progress, according to Dr Peter Monti. It is often referred to as plastic because it is built to acquire information, adapt, and learn.

Alcohol, however, can disrupt the adolescent brain’s ability to learn life skills.

So, not only can heavy drinking at this time get the adolescent into trouble through behaviour, such as risk taking, or drinking and driving, but it can also make the brain less able to learn important life skills that can help one avoid trouble as an adult.

The earlier a person starts drinking:

• the greater the risk of altering the development of the brain
• the greater the risk of alcohol problems.

Source: Dr Peter Monti, Symposium organiser, and professor of medical sciences and director of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University.

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Alcohol affects teenagers’ ability to achieve at school

Alcohol can cause severe and possibly lasting brain damage in people under the age of 21. A recent US study compared the brains of those who drank alcohol aged 14 - 21 with those who did not drink.

Teenagers who drank alcohol:

• had smaller areas of that part of the brain that handles memory and learning
• had damage to the section of the brain used to make decisions and to reason
• scored worse on vocabulary, visual-spatial tests (the ability to think in pictures and images), and memory tests
• performed more poorly in school, were more likely to fall behind and have increased risk of social problems, depression, suicidal thoughts and violence
• suffered a change to their sleep cycle, resulting in impaired learning and memory as well as disrupted release of hormones necessary for growth and maturation
• had a 10% decrease in verbal and nonverbal information recall
• may have difficulties in attaining the goals of adulthood

Source: (AMI) American Medical Association’s report on alcohol’s adverse effects on the brains of children, adolescents and college students updated 2004

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Alcohol takes a greater toll on brain development in those under 21 than in any other age group

Adults would have to consume twice as many drinks to suffer the same brain damage as teenagers; even one heavy drinking session can injure young brains.

• young people do not tolerate the effects of alcohol better than adults, even if youthful stamina enables them to stay up all night drinking when we oldies would be in bed
• teenagers (who drink) are more likely to suffer from lack of judgement and memory loss
• this is of great concern because some children now try alcohol for the first time as young as 12 years old, and data reveals that most young Australians have tried alcohol by the time they are 16

Source: ADF fact sheet The affects of alcohol on the developing brain Number 3.12 Feb 2005

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There is a strong connection between alcohol consumption, self-harm, and suicide

• If we drink too much, too regularly, we are more likely to become depressed
• There is evidence that alcohol changes the chemistry of the brain itself and that this increases the risk of depression
• hangovers create a cycle of waking up feeling ill, anxious, jittery, and guilty
• regular drinking can cause family arguments and result in poor work output, unreliable memory, and sexual problems

Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Public education Editorial Board Dr Phillip Timm Editor updated July 2006

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Double trouble

The brain does not fully develop until the mid 20s. In young people, that part of the brain that controls judgment and behaviour is not properly developed. Accordingly, teenagers often engage in risk-taking behavior without having consumed alcohol. Our teenagers are faced with double trouble when they drink alcohol. When these double-trouble situations arise, the police, or worse still the ambulance, is often required.

Source: Family Drug Help

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Parents can influence the drinking patterns of their children

• Parents do have the capacity to set effective rules and parenting practices that could delay the age at which their children would begin using alcohol
• By setting rules and monitoring alcohol use in the home parents can have a direct positive influence
• Among the students aged 12 –15 years responding to a survey, 42 % reported parents as the most common source for obtaining alcohol⁴
• The longer we delay the age teenagers are allowed to drink alcohol at home, the greater the chance that our teenagers will use alcohol moderately as adults

4 ADF. Australian Drug Foundation. Prevention research evaluation report. Number 13 February 2005

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Parents who allow their children small amounts of alcohol in an attempt to instill safe drinking habits maybe setting them on the path to becoming binge drinkers

“There is no protective effect from giving children alcohol.”

“Explain to children that alcohol is harmful, and make a rule that children will not be allowed to drink until they reach the legal age. Right through high school that needs to be the message and communities need to back parents with that message.”

Source: Associate Professor John Toumbourou from the Centre of Adolescent Health at Melbourne’s Murdoch Childrens Research Institute quoted in the Australian Newspaper January 2007

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