Heavy alcohol use ‘changes adolescents’ brains’

Adolescents who drink alcohol heavily risk altering the development of their brains, according to a new Finnish study.

Adolescent brains are still developing. The findings of a new Finnish study “strongly indicate” that heavy alcohol use may disrupt this development

The study by the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital found that ‘cortical thinning’ was observable in young people who had been heavy drinkers throughout their adolescence. The findings have been published in the Addiction journal.

Researchers explained that parts of the brain continued to develop into a person’s 20s, with the study showing that heavy drinking could disrupt its maturation.

The study performed magnetic resonance imaging of the brain structure on young, healthy, but heavy-drinking adults who had been heavy drinkers throughout their adolescence, as well as on age-matched, light-drinking control participants.

The subjects participated in three cross-sectional studies conducted over the course of 10 years, in 2005, 2010 and 2015. The participants were 13 to 18 years old at the start of the study.

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All participants were academically successful, and the prevalence of mental health problems did not differ between the two groups, the study authors said. Although the heavy-drinking participants had used alcohol regularly for 10 years – defined as approximately six to nine units roughly once a week – none of them had a diagnosed alcohol use disorder.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed “statistically significant” differences between the groups.

Among the heavy-drinking participants, grey matter volume was decreased in the anterior cingulate cortex (an area of the brain involved with functions such as regulating blood pressure and heart rate, and certain higher-level functions, such as reward anticipation, decision-making, impulse control and emotion) as well as in the right insula (also linked to the latter, higher-level functions).

“The maturation of the brain is still ongoing in adolescence, and especially the frontal areas and the cingulate cortex develop until the 20s,” said PhD student Noora Heikkinen, one of the authors of the study. “Our findings strongly indicate that heavy alcohol use may disrupt this maturation process.”

Cingulate cortex has a particularly important role in impulse control, and volume changes in this area may play an important role in the development of a substance use disorder later in life, the study authors said.

Structural changes in the insula, on the other hand, may reflect a reduced sensitivity to alcohol’s negative subjective effects, and in this way contribute to the development of a substance use disorder.

“The exact mechanism behind these structural changes is not known,” Heikkinen added. “However, it has been suggested that some of the volumetric changes may be reversible if alcohol consumption is reduced significantly.

“As risk limits of alcohol consumption have not been defined for adolescents, it would be important to screen and record adolescent substance use, and intervene if necessary.”