Pratibha Vashisht
Introduction
Alcohol consumption is a temporary state of pleasure practised by adults and teenagers. When one misuses the intake of alcohol to cope with various stressors and it significantly impacts one’s life it is known as alcohol abuse. But regardless of the amount consumed by teenagers, it can have serious consequences on the developing brain, social life, and mental health. It can lead to not only daily challenges and long-term negative effects but also in serious cases some fatal accidents. This paper intends to spread awareness about the serious need to address underage drinking because of its negative impacts.
Effect on Social Behaviour and Interactions
Under the influence of alcohol acute impairment can have serious consequences
such as unintentional life-threatening behaviour towards others, risky sexual
behaviour, engagement in violence, and road accidents. Youth which starts drinking
at a young age seem to have more severe outcomes. Young people who began
drinking before the age of fifteen were 12 times more likely to sustain unintentional
injuries while under the influence of alcohol, seven times more likely to be involved in
a car accident after drinking, and 10 times more likely to have engaged in physical
violence with others after drinking than those who waited until they were the legal
drinking age. Poor school performance is also correlated with underage drinking.
(Hingson & Kenkel, 2004)
Physical Effects
While it takes a longer duration of alcohol abuse for chronic diseases to develop,
frequent heavy use in adolescent age and continuing the same behaviour in adulthood can put the individuals at a higher risk of developing problems such as
pancreatitis, hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, hypertension, and anaemia. (Bonnie & O’Connell, 2004)
Brain Development
Several studies are being conducted to find how early alcohol use can affect brain
development. One of these techniques includes studying brain imaging using MRI.
Adolescent alcohol consumption appears to have an impact on brain development and function. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the brain sizes of young people with adolescent-onset alcohol consumption problems and healthy-matched comparison youngsters were compared. The left and right hippocampus, which are important areas of the central brain for the creation of new memories, were considerably smaller in young people with alcohol use disorders. These findings suggested that the hippocampus may be especially susceptible to the negative effects of alcohol during adolescence. (De Bellis et al., 2000)
Effects on Mental Health
Drinking alcohol during adolescence is linked to a host of mental health issues, from
melancholy and suicidal thoughts and actions to low self-esteem and abnormal
conduct. Adolescents with alcohol use disorders have mental health issues and
disorders far more frequently than the overall population does, and much more
frequently than the base rates of these specific diseases can explain. (Lilienfeld et
al., 1994)
Conclusion
Spreading awareness about the severe consequences of underage drinking to not
only the individual but also the people around is crucial since it can help them make smarter choices and avoid any involvement in alcohol abuse especially at a younger age.
REFERENCES
Hingson, R., & Kenkel, D. (2004). Social, health, and economic consequences of
underage drinking. Reducing Underage Drinking - NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK37611/
Bonnie, R. J., & O’Connell, M. E. (2004). Consequences of underage drinking.
Reducing Underage Drinking - NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK37591
De Bellis, M. D., Clark, D. B., Beers, S. R., Soloff, P. H., Boring, A. M., Hall, J.,
Kersh, A., & Keshavan, M. S. (2000). Hippocampal volume in Adolescent-Onset
Alcohol Use Disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(5), 737–744. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.157.5.737
Lilienfeld, S. O., Waldman, I. D., & Israel, A. C. (1994). A critical examination of the
use of the term and concept of comorbidity in psychopathology research. Clinical
Psychology Science and Practice, 1(1), 71–83.
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