Binge Drinking Impact on Verbal Memory Recall in Adolescents and Young Adults
Mentor 1
Krista Lisdahl
Mentor 2
Kyle Jennette
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
27-4-2018 1:00 PM
Description
Alcohol use has an adolescent onset and continues to be the most popular drug among teens and emerging adults. Binge drinking (4 or more drinks in one episode for females, 5 or more for males) remains a public health problem in adolescents and young adults, with approximately 40% engaging in binge drinking in the past two weeks. Previous research has shown that binge drinking affects verbal learning with variable, inconsistent results in adolescents (Carbia, et. al, 2017). Studies have also demonstrated that females may be more sensitive to binge drinking effects on verbal memory. The aim of this study was to examine whether past year binge drinking episodes predicted verbal memory performance, and whether gender moderated these effects. Data was collected from 89 adolescents and young adults with a wide range of binge drinking episodes (0-126; 44% male, 64% Caucasian; aged 16-25). A series of multiple regressions were run to examine whether number of past year binge episodes were associated with verbal memory (initial recall, short and long-delayed recall and recognition ability on the CVLT-II while controlling for alcohol, nicotine and gender). We also examined whether gender moderated these effects. Increased past year binge drinking episodes were associated with marginally poorer verbal memory recognition (p=.07). Gender did not moderate any findings. Increased number of past year binge drinking episodes marginally predicted poorer recognition ability in adolescents and young adults. Future prospective, longitudinal studies, such as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, are needed to examine causality and whether these verbal memory deficits recover with abstinence.
Binge Drinking Impact on Verbal Memory Recall in Adolescents and Young Adults
Union Wisconsin Room
Alcohol use has an adolescent onset and continues to be the most popular drug among teens and emerging adults. Binge drinking (4 or more drinks in one episode for females, 5 or more for males) remains a public health problem in adolescents and young adults, with approximately 40% engaging in binge drinking in the past two weeks. Previous research has shown that binge drinking affects verbal learning with variable, inconsistent results in adolescents (Carbia, et. al, 2017). Studies have also demonstrated that females may be more sensitive to binge drinking effects on verbal memory. The aim of this study was to examine whether past year binge drinking episodes predicted verbal memory performance, and whether gender moderated these effects. Data was collected from 89 adolescents and young adults with a wide range of binge drinking episodes (0-126; 44% male, 64% Caucasian; aged 16-25). A series of multiple regressions were run to examine whether number of past year binge episodes were associated with verbal memory (initial recall, short and long-delayed recall and recognition ability on the CVLT-II while controlling for alcohol, nicotine and gender). We also examined whether gender moderated these effects. Increased past year binge drinking episodes were associated with marginally poorer verbal memory recognition (p=.07). Gender did not moderate any findings. Increased number of past year binge drinking episodes marginally predicted poorer recognition ability in adolescents and young adults. Future prospective, longitudinal studies, such as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, are needed to examine causality and whether these verbal memory deficits recover with abstinence.
