Psycho-behavioral vulnerability of adolescent binge drinkers

Abstract

SummaryIntroduction: the aim of this work was to study the relationship between binge drinking and psychopathological vulnerability, in terms of internalizing and externalizing problems, in adolescents, based on the assumption that binge drinkers have worse psycho-behavioral problems than nondrinkers or moderate drinkers. Materials and Methods: our analysis was conducted on a sample of 441 students aged between 14 and 17 years (mean age 15.10 years ±1.23 SD) attending several secondary schools in Padua and the surrounding province who volunteered to take part in the study. They were administered the Youth Self Report (YSR 11-18, T. Achenbach) to identify elements of psychopathological vulnerability and an ad hoc Questionnaire on Adolescents' Saturday evenings (QASS) to obtain information on the modality and quantity of their alcohol consumption. Results: a statistically significant relationship was identified between binge drinking and psychopathological vulnerability (F(2, 433)=22.214, p=0.00000). A correlation was also reported between the adolescents' age and their alcohol consumption, older age corresponding to more units of alcohol (UA) being consumed, i.e. consumption rose from a mean 0.2 UA at 13 years old to a mean 2 UA at 17 years of age). By number of alcohol we consider the number of drinks taken by the subjects during a night. Alcohol abuse was found associated with gender and the adolescents' social and recreational habits (in terms of their economic resources, the time they returned home, and the places where they spent the evening). Conclusions: an association was identified between binge drinking behavior and psycho-behavioral disorders of externalizing type. Other variables that influence alcohol consumption, such as adolescents, could be monitored by the parents, if properly sensitized, this opens a perspective on preventive interventions that also involve adults.

Impulsiveness, Behavioral Disorders and Alcohol Misuse in Teenage Students in Northern Italy

“…This data about gender-related impulsiveness' components recalls studies on the brain's morphology and the neuropsychological effects of binge drinking in adolescent age which have demonstrated its association with specific gender-related differences in the cortical thickness of the frontal areas and in the quality of cognitive performance: females are more susceptible to the negative effects of alcohol on their neural development [25]. As for the psychopathological comorbidities, consistently with other studies [7,9,25,26], our data show a significant difference in behavior in the sphere of conduct disorder between heavier and more moderate drinkers, higher alcohol consumptions coinciding with higher scores for CD. This picture could be seen as representing the behavioral correlates associated with impulsiveness and further exacerbated by the neurobiological effects of alcohol on the brain, and particularly on the regions that are still immature in preadolescence and adolescence, i.e.…”

“…The QAS, consisting of questions with multiple-choice answers, was prepared for the purpose of exploring the consumption of recreational drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, during the previous Saturday evening (intended as the hours elapsing between dinner-time and bedtime); it had been used in other study aiming to explore juvenile alcohol consumption and related factors [7][8][9]. The questionnaire enabled us to collect information on the quantity of alcoholic and soft drinks ingested by our sample during the evening.…”

“…The prefrontal cortex, which handles reasoning and other 'executive' functions, emerges late in our development and is among the last to mature, and this explains the propensity of adolescents to be impulsive and take risky decisions, including those relating to the use of psychoactive drugs such as alcohol [5,6]. The worrying increase in alcohol consumption in developmental age [7][8][9] coincides with reports on the harmful effects of ethanol on the brain, which are known to be more severe in young people because they interfere with the brain's ongoing maturation processes and can lead to severe cognitive and behavioral impairments. The dysfunctions caused by alcohol abuse are especially harmful on a level with the frontal and prefrontal areas, and can give rise to psychobehavioral correlates such as attention disorders and decision-making problems, failure to inhibit inappropriate behavior and difficulty in delaying gratification [10,11], all important facets of the multifactorial construct of impulsiveness.…”

Alexithymia, Psychopathology and Alcohol Misuse in Adolescence: A Population Based Study on 3556 Teenagers

“…This project was organized, beginning in 2006, with the cooperation of several public health and social services agencies, together with the University of Padua and the Veneto Region (the Padua University Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, the Social Services at the ULSS 16 Padua, the Regional Center for Liver Diseases at Padua the University Hospital, the Venetian Regional Education Office, the Rotary Club in Padua, the Fondazione Lionello Forin Hepatos ONLUS) [25]. The project was designed for students attending middle and high schools and, alongside its preventive goals, it included a research effort to identify variables related to drinking in adolescence (protective and risk factors), with a view to gaining a better understanding of the phenomenon and the factors behind it, as reported in various other our studies [26]- [29].…”