From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Nicholas Garlow with HHS HealthBeat.
Images of the brains of binge drinkers indicates binge drinking thins the brain's prefrontal cortex, which handles things like paying attention, making decisions, and controlling impulses.
At the University of Cincinnati, Tim McQueeny saw it in a pilot study of 29 weekend binge drinkers ages 18 to 25. McQueeny says the amount of drinking during binges has an effect, too: "Those who've had the most number of drinks per binge episode had the greatest thinning in the prefrontal cortex." (6 seconds) A "binge" is drinking five or more drinks at a time for males and four or more for females. And it's common among almost half of young adults.
The study was presented at the Research Society on Alcoholism annual meeting. Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Last revised: August 11, 2011. |
Listen to Tip
Interested?
Take the Next Step |
