The serious risks of teen drinking

By Barbara Reisman, M.D.

We are writing in response to your Aug. 21 cover story about underage drinking, “Paying for the Party,” and the letters and comments that followed.

Unfortunately, we know that adolescents in our community have higher rates of alcohol use than other youth in California. The recently completed Community Needs Assessment (produced by a collaborative of Napa Valley Vintners, Queen of the Valley Medical Center, St. Helena Hospital, Napa County Health and Human Services and Clinic Ole) reported that 59.4 percent of Napa County adolescents reported alcohol use within the last 30 days versus 45.9 percent of California youth as a whole. This information gives us the opportunity to re-examine attitudes about adolescent alcohol use.

Many parents of teens grew up in an era where adolescent alcohol use was considered the norm. Thankfully, advances in science over the last two decades give us the opportunity to reassess those views. Advances in the study of the human brain have taught us that the brain continues to develop through adolescence and up through the early twenties. Because of the important changes that are occurring in structure and chemistry, the adolescent brain is highly sensitive to the impact of alcohol intoxication (i.e., slurred speech, poor coordination, visual changes, changes in emotion and energy levels, blackouts) are all reflections of one or more portions of the brain being adversely impacted by alcohol. When you put the information together with the fact that the brain is involved in critically important changes during adolescence and early adulthood, it causes us to reconsider condoning alcohol use in teens.

We also recognize that setting limits with adolescents can be very difficult. Teenagers can be very articulate and persuasive regarding their desire to have alcohol provided at their parties. Our hope is that by providing further information to parents, they will find it easier to resist the pressure. In addition to protecting their brain development, parents are also providing an important message to their children when they say “no.” The message that “You don’t need alcohol to have fun” is an important life lesson.

Wolfe Center is Napa County’s only adolescent treatment facility. We provide intensive substance abuse treatment at our clinic on First Street, as well as prevention, early intervention and lower level treatment in the public middle and high schools of Napa County. If you have any questions about substance use in your teenager, please call us. Wolfe Center will confidentially assess any referred Napa County teen free of charge. Please call 255-1855 or visit www.wolfecenter.org.

(Reisman is medical director and psychiatrist at Wolfe Center in Napa.)

Napa Valley Register Copyright © 2009