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Teen drinking can cause problems later in life

beerbrainThe dangers of youthful drinking extend beyond making poor judgments while intoxicated. Alcohol can have a lasting effect on teens, says Linda Spear PhD of Binghamton University‘s Department of Psychology.

She urges parents not to allow young people to drink alcohol before they reach the legal drinking age, period.

Here‘s why:

* Insensitive to cues that they are going beyond tipsy, adolescents tend to drink more, and ingesting high levels of alcohol can be toxic.

* Adolescents are unusually sensitive to the social facilitating effects of alcohol, and most of their drinking occurs in social contexts. So, social enhancing effects of alcohol could serve to encourage further drinking by adolescents.

* Compared to adults, adolescents are relatively resistant to alcohol‘s sedative and motor-impairing effects, which may increase the likelihood that they will drink more heavily and more often and develop alcohol problems later on.

Linda Spear PhD *As alcohol leaves their system, adolescents are likely to become socially anxious; when they drink again, they will relax and start to socialize -- so they may begin to rely on alcohol to reduce social anxiety.

Spear says consuming alcohol early in life is one of the most powerful predictors of later alcohol abuse.

youngentobExposure to alcohol in the womb, also, can predict alcohol abuse in adolescence, says Upstate‘s Steven Youngentob PhD.

Two studies by Youngentob, a professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, show that rats develop a preference for the taste and smell of alcohol in utero if their mothers consume alcohol during pregnancy. He says that makes the baby rats more likely to abuse alcohol as they get older. Similarly, he believes human teens are at increased risk for abusing alcohol, especially if they are risk-takers, feel social pressure to drink or have a family history of drinking.

Youngentob told the website, About.com there is no safe time to drink alcohol during pregnancy. Based on his research, parents need to keep their children away from alcohol, especially if they had fetal alcohol exposure.
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