A new study of rats indicates that exposure to alcohol in adolescence can predispose them to heavy drinking as adults.

"We know that adolescence is a vulnerable time," said Dr. Nicole Schramm-Sapyta of Duke University Medical Center. "Our key finding is that drinking patterns may be established after only a few exposures to alcohol. Rats that demonstrate a 'taste' for alcohol after only three nights of drinking were very likely to be the biggest drinkers after longer-term exposure."

Dr. Schramm-Sapyta and her colleagues expected to find that "teenaged" rats with elevated anxiety levels or those that enjoyed seeking novelty were more likely to develop a taste for drinking. But this was not the case. She said that early exposure to alcohol was the main factor they found. This study appears in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

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Labels: anxiety, development, exposure