A Snapshot of Findings on Alcohol’s Physiological Effects in Adolescent Humans and Animals

	Findings	Study
On the Liver
In humans	Levels of enzymes that are used as indicators of liver damage are higher in adolescents with alcohol use disorders	Clark et al. 2001
	And in obese adolescents who drink more moderate amounts.	Strauss et al. 2000
On the Endocrine System
In humans	Drinking alcohol can lower estrogen levels in adolescent girls.	Block et al. 1993
	Drinking alcohol can lower luteinizing hormone and testosterone levels in adolescent boys.	Diamond et al. 1986; Frias et al. 2000a
	In both sexes, acute intoxication reduces levels of growth hormones.	Frias et al. 2000b
In rats	In female rats, ingesting alcohol during adolescence is associated with adverse effects on maturation of the reproductive system.	Dees et al. 2001
	Alcohol suppresses the secretion of certain female reproductive hormones, delaying the start of puberty.	Emanuele et al. 2002a, b
	Alcohol not only disrupts the interaction between the brain, pituitary gland, and ovaries, but also impairs regulatory systems within the ovaries.	Dees et al. 2001
	In male rats, alcohol consumption alters growth hormone and testosterone levels, which may have serious consequences for normal development.	Little et al. 1992; Cicero et al. 1990; Tentler et al. 1997; Emanuele et al. 1998, 1999a, 1999b; Steiner et al. 1997
In rhesus macaques	In immature female monkeys, daily exposure to alcohol lowered levels of female hormones and affected the development of regular monthly cycles.	Dees et al. 2000
On Bone Density
In humans	Increased alcohol consumption is associated with lowered bone mineral density in adolescent males but not females.	Fehily et al. 1992; Neville et al. 2002; Elgan et al. 2002; Fujita et al. 1999
In rats	In adolescent female rats, chronic alcohol consumption produced shorter limb lengths and reductions in bone growth, neither of which was fully reversed with abstinence.	Sampson et al. 1996; Sampson and Spears 1999
	In adolescent male rats, chronic alcohol ingestion was associated with shorter limb length and reduced bone growth, which are not fully reversed with abstinence.	Wezeman et al. 1999
On the Brain
In humans	A history of alcohol abuse or dependence in adolescents was associated with reduced hippocampal volumes	De Bellis et al. 2000
	And with subtle white-matter microstructure abnormalities in the corpus callosum.	Tapert et al. 2003
In rats	Chronic intermittent exposure to high alcohol doses (i.e., bingeing) results in long-lasting changes in memory in adolescent rats	White et al. 2000
	And more damage to the frontal-anterior cortical regions of the brain than are produced in adult rats.	Crews et al. 2000
	Prolonged alcohol exposure during adolescence produces: Neurophysiological changes in the response to alcohol challenge and in the tolerance to alcohol’s sedative effects; Enhanced expression of withdrawal behaviors; and Long-lasting neurophysiological effects in the cortex and hippocampus.	Slawecki et al. 2001; Slawecki 2002; Slawecki and Roth 2004