Alcohol and Brain Development in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Advisory Report of the Health Council of the Netherlands

Janette De Goede,Kerstin G Van Der Mark-Reeuwijk,Kees P Braun,Saskia Le Cessie,Sarah Durston,Rutger C M E Engels,Anna E Goudriaan,Karel G M Moons,Wilma A M Vollebergh,Taco J De Vries,Reinout W Wiers,Jaap Oosterlaan

doi:10.1093/advances/nmaa170

Abstract

Young people, whose brains are still developing, might entail a greater vulnerability to the effects of alcohol consumption on brain function and development. A committee of experts of the Health Council of the Netherlands evaluated the state of scientific knowledge regarding the question whether alcohol negatively influences brain development in young people. A systematic literature search for prospective studies was performed in PubMed and PsychINFO, for longitudinal studies of adolescents or young adults ranging between 12 and 24 y of age at baseline, investigating the relation between alcohol use and outcome measures of brain structure and activity, cognitive functioning, educational achievement, or alcohol use disorder (AUD), with measures at baseline and follow-up of the outcome of interest. Data were extracted from original articles and study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. A total of 77 studies were included, 31 of which were of sufficient quality in relation to the study objectives. There were indications that the gray matter of the brain develops abnormally in young people who drink alcohol. In addition, the more often young people drink or the younger they start, the higher the risk of developing AUD later in life. The evidence on white matter volume or quality, brain activity, cognitive function, and educational achievement is still limited or unclear. The committee found indications that alcohol consumption can have a negative effect on brain development in adolescents and young adults and entails a risk of later AUD. The committee therefore considers it a wise choice for adolescents and young adults not to drink alcohol.

Highlights

In 2014 the Dutch government changed the legal drinking age from 16 to 18 y in order to protect children and adolescents from the risks of alcohol consumption, based on experts’ advice to do so. The reason for this policy change was the emerging literature indicating that underage drinking may have detrimental effects on brain development [1,2,3,4], besides the fact that acute effects of alcohol include a higher risk of accidents, violence, and other transgressive behavior [5,6,7,8], and that chronic alcohol consumption increases the risk of many diseases and disorders [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
In the other 4, differences were found on several cognitive functions between alcohol consumers and nondrinkers, where alcohol consumers showed relatively poor outcomes compared with controls or where more drinks or starting at a younger age was associated with relatively poor cognitive outcomes [63, 76, 77, 79]
One of the American studies found an association between higher alcohol consumption and improvements in working memory [76]

Summary

Introduction

In 2014 the Dutch government changed the legal drinking age from 16 to 18 y in order to protect children and adolescents from the risks of alcohol consumption, based on experts’ advice to do so. The reason for this policy change was the emerging literature indicating that underage drinking may have detrimental effects on brain development [1,2,3,4], besides the fact that acute effects of alcohol include a higher risk of accidents, violence, and other transgressive behavior [5,6,7,8], and that chronic alcohol consumption increases the risk of many diseases and disorders [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. It is widely assumed that alcohol negatively affects brain development, which continues into the late 30s [20]

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Results

Conclusion