Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jun 2013
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2013 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Sharon Kirkey
Page: A19
Referenced: http://mapinc.org/url/TGViMyDE

DRINK, USE OF POT LINKED TO BRAIN INJURY IN YOUTH

Injuries often not reported, study says

Alcohol and drugs can damage a teenager's brain in more ways than
people think.

A new study has found that youths who said they frequently consume
booze or pot were up to five times more likely than abstinent youths
to report having suffered at least one traumatic brain injury that
left them unconscious for at least five minutes or hospitalized overnight.

Overall, the survey of nearly 9,000 Ontario high school students found
that, in general, one in five teens said they had had a brain injury
at some time in their lives.

Nearly six per cent reported at least one brain injury in the past
year.

"In the United States, more than half a million adolescents 15 years
or younger need hospital-based care for head injury annually, and our
data suggest a much higher number of adolescents may be experiencing
these injuries," the researchers write in this week's issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association.

In Canada, half of all injuries that kill or disable youths involve a
brain injury, states background information released with the study.

The new study is based on the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's
2011 Ontario student drug use and health survey, an anonymous
questionnaire completed in classrooms by 8,915 students in grades 7
through 12.

"To our knowledge, this is the longest ongoing school survey in the
world," said lead author Dr. Gabriela Ilie, a post-doctoral fellow at
St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and a lecturer in psychology at the
University of Toronto.

For the first time in 2011, students were asked if they had ever had a
traumatic brain injury - a blow to the head that can cause compression
within the brain, damaging or irreversibly destroying brain cells.
Symptoms include loss of consciousness, dizziness, headaches,
moodiness, difficulty concentrating and increased sensitivity to light
and sounds.

Concussions - the most common form of brain injuries - can be
difficult to diagnose. CT scans can miss subtle, tiny, micro bleeds in
the brain that, if not picked up, can lead to "second impact syndrome"
- - potentially fatal brain swelling, if the person suffers another head
injury before recovering from the first.

Sports injuries accounted for more than half of the brain injuries
reported by the students, and were more common among boys (63 per cent
of brain injuries) than girls (almost 50 per cent). "Not just team
sports, such as hockey and soccer, but also skiing, skateboarding and
snowboarding," Ilie said.

More males reported brain injury than females (23 versus 17 per cent)
and students with grades below a 60 per cent average were four times
more likely to report having had a brain injury than teens with grades
above 90 per cent.

Studies have shown that brain injuries, especially repeated injuries,
can cause impaired learning and memory over the long term, which is
especially important for children, whose brains are still developing.

Teens who reported having 40 or more drinks in the previous year had
more than five times the odds of suffering a traumatic brain injury
than youths who abstained. Those who smoked pot 10 or more times in
the previous year were more than three times as likely to report a
brain injury.

Researchers can't tell from the survey how the injuries happened. But
booze and pot can make people dizzy and disoriented and alter their
perception of distance and space.

Until now, estimates of brain injuries have been based mostly on
hospital records. But Ilie says the new survey suggests many head
injuries are going uncounted if teens don't report them to their
parents or coaches.

"If we know who's more vulnerable, if we know how the injuries are
occurring, we can talk to students, we can talk to their parents,
their trainers and coaches," Ilie said.

"We know from adult studies just how devastating some of these
injuries can be on people's quality of life, their ability to hold
steady employment, their relationships, substance use and mental health."
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MAP posted-by: Matt