Alcohol intoxication and mental health among adolescents

Teens who drink heavily are more likely than their peers to have behavioural and attention problems and suffer from anxiety and depression, a team led by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has reported.

The team's study was based on a survey of nearly 9000 Norwegian teenagers aged 13-19 years and was published in the online journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health. Fully 80 per cent of the teenagers said they had tried alcohol, while 29 per cent said they had been drunk more than 10 times in their lives.

Boys who drank frequently were more likely to report conduct problems, while girls who drank frequently reported attention and conduct problems, along with depression and anxiety.

Forty-three per cent of students who reported behavioural or other problems also reported having been drunk more than 10 times in their lives, while only 27 per cent of students who reported few or no conduct problems had been drunk more than 10 times. But boys were only slightly more likely than girls to report drinking heavily.

The team, led by Arve Strandheim from the NTNU Faculty of Medicine's Department of Public Health and General Practice, used data from a comprehensive, population-based cross-sectional survey called Young HUNT. Ninety-one per cent of the youth population in one Norwegian county answered the drinking and behavioural questionnaire as a part of a larger comprehensive health survey of the entire county's population aged 13 and older.

Because the study is based on a one-time questionnaire, it does not show a cause-and-effect relationship, the researchers caution. In fact, because conduct and attention problems tend to emerge early in childhood, it seems less likely that adolescent alcohol abuse itself causes mental health problems. the researchers say. But the study does suggest that adolescents with attention and conduct problems are at high risk for developing alcohol problems.

Teenaged girls with depression or anxiety symptoms should also be considered at high risk of developing alcohol abuse, the researchers say. This is especially true for younger teen girls aged 13-16.

http://www.capmh.com/content/pdf/1753-2000-3-18.pdf

Full bibliographic information: Arve Strandheim, Turid Lingaas Holmen, Lindsey Coombes and Niels Bentzen: Alcohol intoxication and mental health among adolescents - a population review of 8983 young people, 13-19 years in North-Trøndelag, Norway: the Young-HUNT Study.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2009, 3:18 doi:10.1186/1753-2000-3-18