Adolescent Alcohol Consumption & Its Effects into Adulthood

Alcohol use, specifically binge drinking, continually proves to have detrimental effects on the human body both physically and psychologically. The prevalence of alcohol use among adults and young adults in the United States consistently increases as time moves on. Sadly, because of this increased prevalence, an estimated 88,000 people die because of alcohol-related causes every year, bumping alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. as of August 2018. Alcohol related deaths are only trailing behind poor diet and tobacco, the first and second preventable causes of death, respectively. While we know that alcoholism has a significant impact on our physical health, there are also many other effects that alcohol has on our brains as well as our behavior, especially when we consume at such a young age.

            Researchers are very interested in the connections between substance use and the human brain and behavior. Dr. Jaime Roitman, for example, is particularly interested in adolescent alcohol consumption and how that may affect the prefrontal cortex and human behavior. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for many complex human behaviors, such as decision making and planning, to name a few. The prefrontal cortex also undergoes serious development during the adolescence period of an individual’s life, it is interesting to study the relation between the prefrontal cortex and alcohol consumption during adolescence. Roitman and her team allowed adolescent animals to eat “jello shots” and examined the possible influence of alcohol on the prefrontal cortex, specifically looking at the animal’s risk preference. They discovered that simply moderate alcohol consumption increased the animal’s risk preference in both adolescence and adulthood, and that it also affected the prefrontal cortex response to rewards in adulthood. Clearly, alcohol consumption has a significant impact on the prefrontal cortex. 

            The article “Almost half of US adults who drink, drink too much, and continue to do so” can be directly related to Roitman’s research. Despite all the risks that come with alcohol consumption, adults in the United States continue to drink too much, specifically young adults. While there are many social factors that play into the reason why young adults start to drink too much, studies found that about 73 percent of binge drinkers were still doing it two to four years later, and the article calls for more public education to younger adults, as they are more open to influence at this time of their life. Part of this may also be to stop young adults from drinking too early, as it has been noted that individuals who begin to drink in adolescence continue to drink too much throughout their life. Roitman’s research portrays the effects on an individual’s brain, and with this research and more like it, this may be an effort to educate the young adults in society to be wary of alcohol consumption. The hope is that binge drinking and alcoholism significantly decreases, especially in young adults, so that alcohol does not move up higher on the preventable cause of death list in the United States. 

Boston University School of Medicine. "Almost half of US adults who drink, drink too much, and continue to do so." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 July 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180717143012.htm>.