On 29 May, in the Sixth Scientific Sessions, Dr Fernando Cadaveira, taught this conference. He pointed out the problems caused by intensive consumption of alcohol in young people and adolescents. He stood out that the brain damage associated with this consumption “represents the missed opportunity to be the adult they could have become”.

Dr Fernando Cadaveira summarised the results obtained in the last 10 years of research in this field, pointing out the difficulties and limitations involved in conducting experimental studies with humans, which can become confounding factors when interpreting the results. He highlighted that “Neurocognitive disorders caused by intensive alcohol consumption agree on data obtained by techniques of structural, functional, metabolic and behavioural neuroimaging. This intensive alcohol consumption, made in adolescence, means a loss of important opportunities as it comes at a time of life of great brain vulnerability, because the brain is in the process of maturing. Additionally, it is another way to join the path of chronic alcohol consumption”.

Fernando Cadaveira is Full University Professor of Psychobiology at the University of Santiago de Compostela.
 

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