A recent study on a substantial group of Norwegian teenagers, focus on the ill effects of heavy drinking. The teenagers who drink heavily are more prone to depression, anxiety and other behavioural problems than their non-drinking friends.
The study reveals the fact that those teenagers who had been drunk on 10 occasions or above, are found to exhibit these symptoms. This is found to affect girls more than boys.
However, one drawback of the study was that the details were recorded only once. Hence, it doesn’t reveal whether drinking happened first resulting in depression or the other way round. Dr. Arve Strandheim, lead researcher of the study group, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, also agreed that this is a possibility not touched by the study.
According to Dr. Strandheim, it is immaterial which problem started first. The aim of the study is to bring awareness about the issue among parents that both depression and drinking are interrelated. Only with their support and help, teenagers can stay away from the problem and in case, already deep into it, to get out without any harm.
Teenagers from 13 to 19 years participated in the study. A staggering eighty percent of those surveyed said that they had tried drinks and above 50% had got drunk at least once. Among those with attention deficit problems, 43% had got drunk more than 10 times. Only 23% of those who got drunk above 10 times show no difficulty on this count.
The figures show similar pattern for those with behavioural problems and fighting tendencies. Other symptoms displayed by heavy drinkers are anxiety and depression. The effect is more pronounced among girls than boys.
When parents are aware of these problems, they can intervene to keep the habit from forming at all.
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