The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that, “Researchers led by Catherine Fortier at Harvard Medical School found that chronic alcohol misuse damaged white matter in areas of the brain that are important for self-control and recovery from alcoholism. The findings appeared in the December 2014 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
A new study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors and reported on health.usnews.com has important implications for parents, educators and health professionals. It found that “among people who use illicit drugs ” those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) start using them one to two years earlier in their youth than those without the disorder.” On average, subjects with ADHD began using alcohol at 13, about 1.5 years before those without the disorder.
Stanford University School of Medicine has published a study in the current issue of JAMA Psychiatry (February 4) that indicates there is a common pattern of gray matter loss in key brain structures across a wide spectrum of brain disorders that clinicians and researchers tend to view as distinct problems.
Raising Healthy Children in an Alcoholic Home 