Troubled Teens Resources

Two new studies have insights on troubled teens and how alcohol addiction could start before they are even born. It can start with the drinking habits of their mothers. If a baby’s mother is abusing alcohol it can have a profound effect on her baby. That is not new information. But what is surprising is that the baby can come to prefer the taste and smell of alcohol.

Note that the research was done in the lab and not on real people, but it gives some insights into how alcohol abuse can run in families. Researchers at the State University of New York Developmental Ethanol Research Center studied rats to learn about how they develop before birth. As the young developed nervous systems they found the mice adapted to whatever their mothers eat and drink. So if young rats were exposed to alcohol later they came to prefer it.

We already know that foetal alcohol exposure increases the chances of babies getting Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which leads to profound neurodevelopmental problems including mental retardation. I’m always surprised how much a mother influences a baby’s development. The information is not meant to condemn mothers - but will hopefully empower them. What they eat or drink can have a profound affect later when their babies become teenagers.

In one study, baby rats exposed to alcohol before birth drank significantly more of it in youth but not in adulthood. The researchers let the rats choose to drink alcohol from bottles. The complete study is published in the December issue of Behavioural Neuroscience.