Teens Should Take a Lesson From Drunken Monkeys, Study Shows

by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts) Jun 3rd 2010 12:00PM

Categories: In The News, Alcohol & Drugs, Teen Culture, Behavior Teens, Research Reveals Teens

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Don't be a party animal, kids. Credit: Getty Images

Binge drinking is bad for teenagers -- and monkeys.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., obviously couldn't experiment on the effects of heavy drinking on actual adolescent human beings.

So they found some real swingers and party animals. In other words, they got a bunch of monkeys drunk.

Researchers gave Rhesus monkeys large amounts of booze over a short period of time, the Daily Telegraph in London reports. A control group was kept clean and sober. Two months later, researchers analyzed the monkeys' brains.

The newspaper reports researchers found that the drunken monkeys were producing fewer brain cells and sustained damage to the hippcampus, a part of the brain that plays a crucial role in long-term memory and spatial navigation.

Researchers warn binge drinking could condemn teenagers to lives as forgetful and absent-minded adults.

"Binge alcohol consumption in adolescents is increasing, and studies in animal models show that adolescence is a period of high vulnerability to brain insults," Dr. Chitra Mandyam, the leader of the study, tells the Daily Telegraph.

In the drunken monkeys, booze "significantly decreased" the number of actively dividing cells, he adds.

"This lasting effect, observed two months after alcohol discontinuation, may underlie the deficits in hippocampus-associated cognitive tasks that are observed in alcoholics," he tells the newspaper.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Related: Anti-Alcohol PSAs? Spare Me the Guilt and Pour Me a Drink

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Comments (13)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Russell 6-03-2010 @ 9:00PM

"What a terrible waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being terribly wasteful." -- Dan Quayle

upurs 6-03-2010 @ 9:20PM

ya and a great example of this is our own diplomats,they have to be drunk to pass a lot the garbage that's being handed down to.."we the people"

Digi 6-03-2010 @ 10:16PM

First off not all teenagers drink. In fact those that do barely make up a large percentage and of that percentage even less binge drink.

I'd hate to say it but its natural selection. Information is easily obtainable on the effects of consuming such substances as alchohol, cigarettes, and drugs, so that the smart kids that take it in, realize without further assistance that they are not good for you and dont do them or do them in moderation. Those that dont Im sorry to say are just examples of how much failings that kids is gona have in life. Today its binge drinking, tomorrow its a heroine junkie. Its the pure fact of life. We cant nipple feed these kids their whole life, and although a sad reality...it is..reality.

stephen 6-03-2010 @ 10:16PM

And what's a bunch of Hippos doing on Campus binge drinking for ?

noreenarshad 6-06-2010 @ 8:44PM

I'm a 16 year old highschool student myself, and I'd like to say that I will never use alcohal to get drunk or anything, even after legal age. It's more of a religous thing that I'd never even sip the stuff, but I'd prefer to sit in a room with an open window with insense to clear my thoughts and drift off. While opening my eyes every few winks to watch the inscence stick burn of course. My parents even bought me some authentic Indian ones for my birthday this year, which was on the twelth of May. Yay for me! Anyway, I belive that your mind will always be there with you, and helps to discern harsh reality from a beautiful one, and that you must always learn to cherish it forever. I learned that the hard way after many made me an outcast this year in school. I have barely anyone to speak to, and my own siblings tell me to shut up at times. I even do really nice things at school for other people like buy treats (with my own money) and create games on Fridays to help stimulate my English honors class. Who are real jerks, I suppose, as an extremely lifelong trusted source told me of the disgusting things they said about me, so terrible, she couldn't even repeat them. I was shocked. I used my own money to buy cookies, candy, ect., and tried to be as nice as I can be, unlike other girls who only act. They're born beautiful, and people look at me and say that I'm my mother's sister. If they already know I'm a teen, they just say "I think I saw your mother once". It's really depressing, my life. I'm hideous, and all the other girls appear beautiful and curse, and are yet so popular. It's even lead me to the point that I was a phsycic vampire. People say I look scary, evevm if I smile. I was voted most serious in chorus class, by vote. I even beat the director! How did I beat him?! In highschool, serious= we all hate you and your attitude. But I try my hardest to be a wonderful person. To be, not act, but to be, unlike everyone else. But God gave me a second chance, and gave me some of my focus and bright outlook again. Which is why I say this. DON'T RUIN YOUR MINDS! You're never going to know the cruel world, full of phonies and unfair games all around in this park we call Life. There's always strangers with candy, which is the majority. All people who ever truly compliment me are older than me, teachers, my parents, and random people who seem to only hope that I don't grow up as a serial killer. I'm a good person, and I would never do such a thing, but it seems people think me of that because of my life story and the sad appearence I have. I wish I could trust others when they said I was actually beautiful or even cute, but it seems they only pity me. The chance of me being truly being called beautiful by anyone is detremented by the chance that I will be struck by lightening and live to tell about how my chance at being beautiful against being struck by lightening and living was true. Whatever you do, be a beautiful human being, ful of compassion, but remain cautious, like a benevolent Machevallian. Don't risk your finest glass, the focus and brightness of your mind.

:) 6-03-2010 @ 10:50PM

haha can you imagine drunk monkeys?? :) lol
Oh and yeeeaahh.... Honestly, lots of teenagers do drink.... but not a lot of them binge drink, maybe they have like once, but thats typically it. And I do agree that it is dumb to screw up your mind by binge drinking but its whatever I guess, cuz you cant really stop people from doing what they are gunna do you know?

Anne Theresa 6-03-2010 @ 11:36PM

I beg to differ with this study. I am 72 years old. In my teens it was common for me and my friends to binge drink. We didn't know how to pace ourselves. (Fortunately we didn't drive or we might have killed ourselves.) I'm not advocating drinking for teens but my point is that none of us suffered any brain loss as adults. We went on to become lawyers, corporate executives, teachers, IT consultants, etc. My own memory is as sharp as ever to the consternation of my children and grandchildren who can't put anything over on me. Again I emphasize that I don't think teens should drink. It could too easily lead to greater problems.

Lora 6-04-2010 @ 12:17AM

I think it's disgusting that they got animals drunk to prove something we already know....heavy drinking can be harmful in many ways including memory loss. The government must have given them a grant to fund this useless study.

Becky Payne 6-29-2010 @ 12:37AM

hahaahaha lora...ya hit the nail on the head!

Heather 9-03-2010 @ 5:34PM

Thank you! I was waiting for someone to say that. It absolutely disgusts me that they would do such a thing. It's like the animals don't even realize what's going on when they do this. I was horrified while reading this. Completely unnecessary.

Brandy 6-04-2010 @ 1:16AM

I'm not a huge animal rights soapboxer but--they got monkeys drunk and caused likely irreversible brain damage to prove common sense? How can that be legal or science?

Common sense tells us that teens do things because they aren't supposed to do them (like the girl who sneaks out to see "that" boy, the one her parents forbade her from seeing). Perhaps if we enacted more sensible drinking age laws we would see binge drinking disappear. Remember, rates of alcohol consumption plummet between the ages of 20 and 22. Why's that? It became legal to drink.