After British researchers surveyed 23,000 people age 11 to 15 years old about their drinking habits, they became uncertain if their results were valid.

In some parts of Britain, the level of alcohol abuse among young people was stunning -- with one in four children telling researchers that they drank an average of nine pints of beer or one and a half bottles of wine every week. That was an average, with many children claiming to drink even more.

It is possible that many who responded to the survey exaggerated the amounts of alcohol consumed.

Despite the large numbers who reported getting drunk on a regular basis , the study actually showed a decline in binge drinking from 55 to 52 percent in two years. Girls drank just as often as boys, but the boys tended to consume greater amounts. The most drinking tended to occur in rural areas.

"Regular consumption at these levels puts boys and girls at considerable risk that extends beyond the usual considerations around accidents and injury through violence," according to the report from NHS Information Center. "At this stage, the adolescent mind is still developing, and for an unlucky minority, heavy drinking at so early an age will have profound and long-lasting implications for their learning and problem solving skills."

Labels: teenage_drinking, alcohol_abuse, adolescence, great britain

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A study from the University of Valencia found that exposure to drugs like ecstasy or cocaine during adolescence may make people more vulnerable to developing addictions.

The study found that exposure to these drugs during adolescence produces changes that last into adulthood, increasing "reinforcing effects" of the drug.

Dr. Jose Minarro and his colleagues gave drugs to mice over an eight-day period, and found they developed an increased vulnerability to them, more so than adult mice exposed to drugs.

"Adolescence is a critical stage in development, during which time drug consumption affects plastic cerebral processes in ways that cause changes that persist right through adulthood," Dr. Minarro wrote in his report, which appeared in the journal Addiction Biology.

Labels: addiction, adolescence

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Middle school students who use alcohol are more likely to attempt suicide than non-drinkers, according to a new study from Georgia State University.

• Researchers looked at the results of a survey of more than 150,000 students in the sixth, eighth, 10th, and 12th grades about their drug and alcohol use.
  
• About 15 percent said they started drinking before they were 13 years old.
  
• The group that started drinking before age 13 was at higher risk for suicide.

"The kids who start drinking early probably have problems in other parts of their lives, such as family dysfunction, mental health and anxiety, with family environment being the biggest driver" said Dr. Monica Swahn, associate dean for research in the College of Health and Human Sciences at GSU.

Labels: alcohol, adolescence, preteens, suicide

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Canadian parents got some good news this week, when a study of nearly 30,000 youth in British Columbia revealed that fewer young people are using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs:

Twenty-nine percent of 13-year-olds said they have drunk alcohol, down from 34 percent five years earlier. For 15-year-olds, 58 percent said they had drunk alcohol, down from 65 percent in 2003. ...

"With all the negative stereotyping we see and hear about young people in our province, it is encouraging to note that smoking, alcohol use and marijuana use have all declined since the last survey in 2003," Annie Smith, executive director of the [McCreary Centre Society, which conducted the study] after the report was released.

The survey indicates that the typical age when kids first try marijuana is 13 and 14, but the overall number of youth who have tried marijuana shrank from 37 percent in 2003 to 30 percent in 2008. (Source: The Vancouver Sun)

The news wasn't all good, reported Sun writer Pamela Fayerman. "While use of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and amphetamines declined, the number of students who said they had ever used other drugs, like prescription pills (15 per cent) and hallucinogens (nine per cent), increased slightly," Fayerman wrote.

Any level of adolescent substance abuse is, of course, cause for concern -- and the Canadian study indicates that much work remains to be done. But the recent news out of Canada will surely be heartening to parents, teachers, and others who are working to keep young people away from alcohol and other drugs.

Labels: alcohol, adolescence, canada, drugs, teenagers

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German researchers have found that regularly smoking marijuana or hashish doubles the risk of developing schizophrenia, a severe mental illness.

Dr. Peter Falkai, reporting to the German Society of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology, found that marijuana consumption among those who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia advances the onset of the disease by about eight years.

Many mental diseases, including schizophrenia and bi-polar disease, usually first appear during adolescence.

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Labels: pot, adolescence, mental_health

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