Binge Drinking Connected to Brain Damage
Much has been studied and said on the effects of alcohol’s connection to risky behaviors, but new research suggests that alcohol over-indulgence may be putting young people at risk for brain damage. Recent research has been focused on how binge drinking, more than four consecutive drinks for a woman and more than five for a man, damages key areas of the brain.
A joint study by professors from the University of North Carolina and the University of Kentucky monitored the effect on rats given ethanol in amounts equivalent to seven beers. The study revealed diminished mental ability for weeks afterward. The ability o f the rats to adapt and learn from error showed signs of subtle impairment. Experts in the US and abroad think it possible that similar reduced human mental function could be extrapolated from the study results.
A recent University of Cincinnati Psychology department study also examined the impact of binge drinking on the brain. This study went further than extrapolation and examined physiological effects of binge drinking on the human brain. The doctoral student involved looked at the brains of 29 young adults ages 18-25 who were described as weekend drinkers. The study used brain scans to reveal how binging is connected to a thinning of grey matter in the cerebral cortex. The scans revealed a direct correlation between the amount of drinking and damage to grey matter. Damage to this area in the brain affects such key functions as critical thinking, decision making, and ability to focus. The study provided empirical evidence for degraded signaling function directly related to binge drinking.
The implications of this study are vital as the alcohol could be toxic to the neurons which carry messages across white matter – or, said another way – there could be a degrading of the brain information highway. Even one or two heavy episodes of drinking could cause micro-structural damage the study said. It is unclear at this point if alcohol affects grey matter and white matter in quite the same fashion.
The good news from the study is that early evidence points to the brain’s ability to reverse these deleterious effects. At least initially, the study indicates that the same correlation which exists between alcohol intake and grey matter loss could be true in the reverse. In other words, binging abstinence may be linked to recovery of grey matter.
A significant 42% of young adults say that they indulge in binge drinking. Research now demonstrates that not only are they at risk for accidents, promiscuity and violence, but they are probably damaging the brain’s pre-frontal cortex. That same population is still experiencing brain growth. Further study is needed to determine how abstaining from binging behavior might reverse damaging effects and also to compare damage to white versus grey matter.
