Many patients have experienced alcohol abuse directly or indirectly, through a friend or a family member. That is why it is significant to educate patients, especially teenagers, about the effects of alcohol use. Recent studies could aid and guide family physicians in educating adolescents. The first study looked into how alcohol drinking during adolescence can have long term negative effects to the brain when they become adults. Adolescent rats were the test subjects and the findings showed long-term abnormalities in the hippocampus region of the brain when they reached adulthood. The second study looked into the increase of heavy drinking of Americans, aged 21 and older, from 2002 to 2012, on the county level. It revealed that heavy drinking increased by more than 17% since 2005. For women, it has increased drastically as compared to men, which showed a 17.5% increase as compared to 5% in same duration. Family physicians for each county are in a good position to educate and give advice to adolescents especially if they have a history of alcohol abuse in the family.
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By aafpnews@aafp.org A recent study sought to examine how teen alcohol use can lead to brain abnormalities in adulthood; a second study demonstrated how binge drinking has increased across the United States, led by higher rates of drinking among women. …read more 
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