Heads Up – Know the Facts About Alcohol & the Teen Brain

It’s a Fact – Alcohol affects the adolescent brain differently than the adult brain because the human brain isn’t fully developed until about age 25. Teens who begin drinking before age 15 are 5X more likely to develop alcohol use disorder than if they start after turning 21.

The brain undergoes massive changes during the teen years particularly in the areas of decision making and impulse control. This makes the teen years a period of great promise, but also of potential risk - especially for addiction. That's why preventing and delaying substance use during this time is so important to long-term health. 

Here are some highlights from Alcohol & The Adolescent Brain: Immediate Impairment, Long-Term Consequences, a comprehensive report presented to the North Carolina Governor’s Substance Abuse and Underage Drinking Prevention and Treatment Task Force in 2016.

* Emotional areas of the brain mature before the frontal cortex - evident in the thrill-seeking, risky decision making, and impulsiveness that define adolescence.

* Due to the immaturity of the frontal cortex, adolescent brains respond more to both the promise of rewards and threats than adults brains - weighing immediate
rewards as more valuable than future rewards.

* "Brain Imbalance" is why adolescents pay more attention to their peers, and why they are more likely to do something without considering the consequences.

* Alcohol slows down brain activity. Negative effects of alcohol last far longer in a teen's brain than in an adult's - up to two weeks longer.

* If teens use alcohol before their brain is fully developed, it can keep the good judgment and impulse-control part of the brain from properly developing.

* Alcohol can also damage the memory and learning areas of the brain.

For more important facts and information, visit the Partnership to End Addiction at https://drugfree.org/article/teen-brain-development/