Heavy Drinking Affects Emotional Center in Teen Brains

Heavy Drinking Affects Emotional Center in Teen Brains New research has revealed the risks of binge drinking in adolescence. The 'Translational Psychiatry' study shows that teenage drinking affects the amygdala — the part of the brain that controls emotion, fear and anxiety. The researchers looked at postmortem amygdala tissue from both early-onset drinkers and late-onset drinkers. The early-onset drinkers had 30% less of a molecule called BDNF. Subhash Pandey, Director of the UIC Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics This may explain why teenage binge-drinkers have higher rates of emotional instability and anxiety disorders.