Heavy Adolescent Alcohol Use Harms both Gray and White Matter in the Brain

The potential effect of alcohol on brain growth and maturation is of considerable concern, particularly in adolescence, when nearly a quarter of youth develop problem-drinking patterns. Now, in the largest prospective study of its kind to date, investigators have studied changes in regional brain morphology over time in heavy drinkers compared with nondrinkers.

The analysis involved 134 at-risk adolescents (72% white; 57% male; mean baseline age, 15 years) who were interviewed every 3 months and who underwent magnetic resonance imaging an average of three times (mean follow-up duration, 3.8 years). During the study, 59 were continuous nondrinkers and 75 initiated heavy drinking. Those who became heavy drinkers had higher baseline rates of de…