“Alcoholic binge” starting from 11-13 years: the possible physical and brain damage of the last, dangerous trend among the very young

The alarm has been launched for a few years and it seems that the phenomenon shows no hints to decrease, as the latest news events also show: kids with an increasingly lower age (we even speak of 11-13 years) end up in hospital for alcohol and ethyl coma intoxication. The last, dangerous trend that worries doctors is “the alcoholic binge”, practiced by almost 38% of children (ISS data). This phenomenon, also known as “binge drinking”, involves taking over 5 drinks in a very short time and away from meals in order to guarantee the drunkenness faster.

Last mid -August, six kids were hospitalized in the emergency room of Lavagna with alcohol poisoning, while on the same day on the Rapallo promenade, at 4 in the morning, a girl was found in a ethyl coma. Similar episode also in Torchiarolo, in the province of Brindisi, where a 13 -year -old girl was found without a senses and rescued perhaps after participating in a beach party based on alcohol.

Starting from June, that is, since schools were closed, toBambin Gesù Hospital of Rome the emergency room recorded at least 1 access every 2 days of teenagers with alcohol poisoning, drugs, or both. And the thing that worries even more than the percentage of those who abuse these substances is the lowering of the age in which you start doing it: if until a few years ago you start from 15-16 years, Today he went down to 12-15, with peaks that have seen even 11 years old children Get to the hospital with a “plow”.

«Many of those who arrive are little more than children. In recent weeks, 12 -year -olds have also arrived in a long state after abusing alcohol or 15 -year -olds who consumed large quantities of cocaine, “explained Sebastian Cristaldi, head of the emergency room, interviewed by Republic.

According to the doctors, young people do not know the risks and do not really understand the consequences caused by an ethyl coma, which can also become permanent.

Physical and neurological damage

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The consequences of alcohol abuse concern, in particular, the liver and the brain, with even more important effects on teenagers, as explained to Rai News Gianni Testinopresident of the Italian Society of Alcology (Is). While a healthy adult takes about 90 minutes to dispose of a glass of wine, a mug of beer or a 40ml alcoholic aperitif, for a teenager it takes at least 3 hours. And considering the excessive consumption that is done in an evening, it is much easier to get to the intoxication, with negative effects on the brain and the nervous system.
Alcohol, in fact, interferes with communication between brain cells, compromising functions such as reasoning, coordination and mood control. Sometimes, blackouts and word difficulties can also occur. “It takes at least 10 months of total abstention from alcohol to recover damage to synapses and recovery is not always total: There may be damage that accumulate over time and ranging from the reduction of memory to a lower psycho-physical performance, up to the inability to formulate important thoughts “, highlighted test.

At this point, it is fundamental to intervene with adequate awareness programs, which at the same time involve parents and schools. Certainly, it is also important to ask themselves about the reasons why some kids fall into this phenomenon and how it can be intervened to prevent it.
Since it is possible that there is a difficulty in parents in intercepting certain inconveniences of the children, within theBambin Gesù Hospital a Parent Training program which provides for a path of psychotherapy, aimed primarily at parents, with the aim of offering them intervention strategies that can be more effective on dysfunctional behavior. A measure that, however, given the presence throughout Italy of this dangerous tendency, appears as a simple drop in the seafarer sea.