MEDICAL MATTERS:The drinking patterns of our young people have the experts profoundly worried, writes Harold Barry.
MOST OF us are around 25 to 30 before our brain has completed its journey towards maturity.
From 12 onwards there is a huge reshaping and reorganisation starting with the emotional limbic system from 12 to 18. This is a stage of development where the brain is extremely vulnerable to alcohol and drugs. It is also a stage where the logical part of the brain is still immature and so the emotional brain is often the main player in the lives of our young people.
Manufacturers of cigarettes and alcohol are particularly interested in this age group; as they know that "hooking" them in at this vulnerable age is both profitable in the short and the long term. While technically those under 18 are "protected" by rules and regulations, the reality is that vast numbers are using both from 12 onwards; with the 16 to 18 age groups an important "sales group" for alcohol companies with an estimated 150 million annually spent by this group in Ireland.
Great concern was expressed at a recent ICGP conference in Cork about the alcohol time bomb in our midst. Increased risks of depression, road traffic accidents, relationship breakdowns, addiction and suicide as a result of our misuse and abuse of this substance were described in graphic detail. All of us are involved, as few can put up their hands and plead innocence in this area!
The real concern however related to girls from 12 to 30; where a frightening vista is gradually unfolding. The appearance of cool sexy "shots" high in alcohol but "not fattening" has been a winner for the alcohol companies. This allied to a cultural sea change in drinking patterns amongst teenagers and young women in their 20s, where binge drinking is rapidly becoming an accepted norm has the medical experts profoundly worried.
Because women metabolise alcohol differently from men; it takes much less to cause short and long-term damage. As girls are starting to drink at earlier ages and are bingeing on high alcohol level spirits and shots (to get "hammered"); we are now starting to see accelerated liver damage as young as late 20s. A whole constellation of physical consequences like damage to heart, pancreas, bones (osteoporosis) breast (increased risks of cancer); along with increased mental health risks of depression, addiction, self-harm, and suicide; are all coming down the tracks in the next decade for many of our young females.
The problem begins because the dopamine pleasure system in the developing brain becomes quickly "buzzed" by the copious levels of alcohol imbibed by young girls; the earlier they begin the more "hooked" it becomes. Many girls are hardened drinkers by the age of 20; and don't realise the tremendous damage they are doing to their immature brain and liver in particular. For many by the time they do it will be too late.
Many young girls start their night out raiding their parents' drinks cupboards usually for spirits (vodka); sometimes with their consent and sometimes not! By the time they are on the town they have already well exceeded their safety limits.
We are all culpable for either accepting this as a normal practice, or turning a blind eye. The weekly safety limits for an adult female is 14 units; many young girls would find it quite easy to reach this level very early in a night out.
Parents take note - some will lose the daughters they love because of our failure to tackle this problem; and at a young age in some cases. We are the ones most likely to get through to them; and have a duty to discuss it; close down alcohol stores at home and shut off the fuel supply (money), if one feels the message is not getting through.
As a community we have to tackle the drinks industry, advertising, off licences, nightclubs where vast amounts of alcohol are sold and imbibed. We need an advertising campaign on social network websites and TV during popular soaps; to try and graphically illustrate the damage that "shots", for example, can do to our mind and bodies.
There is a four-mile queue into Newry every weekend stockpiling vast supplies for Christmas. Is it going to make it a happier occasion? Young people examine what we do, not what we say!
Two cases at the conference should give us food for thought. The first was a heartbroken mother detailing the role of alcohol in the death by suicide of her son in his mid-20s. The second was a case of Korsakov psychosis in a young girl in her early 20s. For the rest of her life she will forget what she did a few minutes before.
We have been warned.
• Harold Barry is a GP in Drogheda