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A new study shows that heavy
drinking among adolescents could be dangerous
for the still-developing brain, HealthScout reported May 13.
"The frontal lobe, where
our brain does things like planning and
problem-solving and judgment, is still developing until we turn
16," said
Dr. Susan Tapert, a psychiatric research fellow at the University
of
California, San Diego (UCSD). "Drinking heavily during this
time could mean life-long problems
Tapert and colleagues arrived
at their conclusions after conducting a variety of thinking and
memory tests on 15- and 16-year-old problem drinkers and non-drinkers.
"The alcoholics performed more poorly in trying to remember
the information we had just taught them," Tapert said. "While
most of the non-drinking kids remembered 95 percent of the information,
the drinkers remembered only 85 percent. That would be the difference
between an A and B grade or a C and D." Researchers found
that problems with memory intensified if adolescents continued
drinking ..