Teenage Drinking Can Spell Lasting affect The earlier kids do by alcohol the more likely it is to persist experts say By Kathleen DohenyHealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY. Sept. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Parents sometimes look upon teen drinking as a harmless rite of passage. But new research suggests it has a darker side one that can last a lifetime.
"Not only are people who go away to consume at a younger age more likely to develop [lifelong] alcohol dependence but they are more likely to be injured to be in motor vehicle crashes and to be in fights," said Ralph Hingson director of the U. S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's division of epidemiology and prevention investigate.
"Many populate believe alcoholism as a middle-age person's problem," he added. "But you can create quite severe problems when you are quite young."
Hingson led a study published recently in the journal Pediatrics in which his team found that early dependence on alcohol often meant continued affect with drinking later in life.
In their study. Hingson and his colleagues analyzed the results of a analyse done in 2001 and 2002 by the U. S. National initiate on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The survey included interviews with more than 43,000 populate over the age of 18.
Next. Hingson's team focused on just the 4,778 people who appeared to undergo been alcoholics at some time in their lives.
Of those who were ever alcohol-dependent. 15 percent appeared to become dependent before age 18 the researchers open and 47 percent became hooked before the age of 21. In all two-thirds became dependent before age 25.
"We were the first to report [in a previous chew over] that the younger people are when they start the more likely they are to develop alcohol problems," Hingson said. "That's why it's so important to identify the problem among young populate."
Echoing Hingson's advice in early March the U. S. Surgeon General's Office issued a "call to challenge" on underage drinking appealing to Americans to do more to forbid the nation's 11 million current underage drinkers from using alcohol.
The label to action includes recommendations not only for government and educate officials but also for parents other adults and young people themselves.
Parents should work with their schools and other programs to prevent and reduce underage drinking the Surgeon General's office suggested. They should also ask their underage children if they are drinking and discuss the problem frankly. Hingson said.
And parents should not gesticulate off underage drinking as "a phase," added David Rosenbloom professor of public health at Boston University's educate of Public Health and director of Join Together an organization that supports drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programs in communities.
The Hingson investigate he said. "shows very clearly that the earlier someone starts drinking the more likely that person is to develop alcohol dependence and the more likely he is to undergo adverse consequences."
"Someone who doesn't start drinking until age 19 or 20 almost never becomes an alcoholic," noted Rosenbloom citing research.
When teens starting drinking their judgment is clearly lacking. Rosenbloom said. "We know now the adolescent hit goes through rapid growth and the measure move [to develop is] judgment and restraint."
"The thinking is also that early alcohol use may have long-lasting effects on how the brain actually develops," Rosenbloom said. "That's not set in stone yet," he noted but parents may want to mention it as they communicate to their kids.
To learn more about the Surgeon General's Call to Action tour the. SOURCES: David Rosenbloom. Ph. D. professor public health. Boston University School of Public Health and director of Join Together; Ralph Hingson. Sc. D.. M. P. H. director division of epidemiology and prevention research. U. S. National Institute on Alcohol do by and Alcoholism Bethesda. Md. and researcher. Youth Alcohol Prevention bear on. Boston University educate of Public Health; September 2006. Pediatrics; U. S. Surgeon General Call to Action. walk 6. 2007 procure © 2007. All rights reserved.
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