What harm does alcohol do to the human brain?

The harm of alcohol to teenagers can also lead to addiction. Because of the large number of alcoholics, it is still difficult for people to accept it as a kind of drug abuse. Alcohol has great affinity for human brain tissue, which in turn inhibits cerebral cortex, spinal cord and medulla oblongata, leading to neurological and mental symptoms and increasing pain. Although alcohol has sedative and hypnotic effects, it cannot be used as a sedative and hypnotic drug. Excessive drinking will cause dysfunction of various systems of the body, and acute and chronic alcoholism will occur, which is obviously harmful to human health. In the classification scheme of mental diseases in China, alcoholism has been classified as "mental disorder caused by psychoactive substances" Alcoholism refers to the neurological and mental disorders caused by excessive drinking. Chronic alcoholism, called alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction, is a compulsive psychological state of having to drink alcohol, which can appear continuously or periodically. 1977 the world health organization suggested that alcohol dependence syndrome should be used instead of alcohol dependence. It is believed that the main manifestations of alcoholics are uncontrolled drinking, thirst for alcohol, withdrawal symptoms, irresponsibility to society and family, and changes in physiology, psychology and behavior. Some people divide alcoholics into recreational, abusive and addictive types, and this distinction is still vague. What kind of drinking depends not only on the amount of drinking, but also on the social environment in which the drinker lives and its social consequences. For example, excessive drinking by industrial workers is often regarded as recreational drinking, while excessive drinking by unemployed people is regarded as alcoholism. Long-term drinkers have physical discomfort and withdrawal symptoms after abstinence, which leads to two results: for individuals, even if their bodies are damaged, they cannot stop or reduce drinking; For society, even in the face of family disintegration or unemployment, it is still impossible to control drinking. Therefore, alcoholics often get into trouble and do harm to individuals and society. Alcoholism patients are characterized by alcohol dependence, mainly manifested as neurological and mental disorders, accompanied by damage to other organs of the organism. Edwards described six characteristics of alcohol dependence syndrome: first, the compulsion of drinking, once you start, you can't stop drinking; Second, there is a fixed drinking pattern, and you must drink after a certain period of time; Third, drinking is more important than career, health and family; Fourth, the tolerance to alcohol has improved, and I mistakenly think that I can do it; Fifth, withdrawal symptoms appear repeatedly, and once drinking alcohol, the symptoms disappear immediately; The sixth is morning drinking, which is of great significance to the diagnosis of alcohol dependence. Long-term chronic alcoholics will have alcohol withdrawal syndrome after suddenly giving up drinking or suddenly reducing drinking. Mild reactions will occur 4 hours after drinking, such as tremor, excitement, insomnia, sweating, anorexia and so on. , some will have seizures within 0/2 hours after drinking/kloc-. The severe withdrawal reaction is delirium tremens after drinking for 48-72 hours, and hallucinations and insanity will occur for several days. CCMD-2R puts forward the diagnostic criteria of mental disorder caused by alcohol: 1, which accords with the diagnostic criteria of mental disorder caused by psychoactive substances. 2. There is a history of drinking, and the symptoms can be inferred to be caused by drinking or abstinence. 3. At least one of the following symptoms occurs: mental retardation, amnesia syndrome, acute poisoning symptoms with consciousness disorder, personality change, psychotic symptoms or emotional disorders, dependence syndrome, withdrawal syndrome, neurosis-like symptoms. 4. Decline in social function. The clinical manifestations of alcoholism can be divided into simple drunkenness, pathological drunkenness and complex drunkenness. This may also lead to mental disorders, hallucinations and delusions, tremors, personality decline and dementia. Simple drunkenness, also known as ordinary drunkenness, refers to the acute poisoning state after an excessive drinking, which mainly includes: decreased consciousness, narrow range of consciousness, drowsiness or drowsiness; Emotional excitement, increased speech movements; Or depressed and quiet; There may also be slurred speech, ataxia, gait instability, nystagmus or facial flushing. People who are simply drunk can generally recover naturally, Yuan sequela. Pathological drunkenness refers to sudden disturbance of consciousness, extreme excitement, aggressive behavior or delusion of being killed after a small amount of drinking. Generally speaking, the attack lasts for several hours or a day and ends with a deep sleep. When you wake up, you can't remember. People with excessive fatigue, high fever, epilepsy and craniocerebral trauma are prone to pathological drunkenness. The harm of alcoholism varies with the amount of alcohol consumed. In addition to acute and chronic alcoholism, it will also lead to an increase in suicides and accidents, leading to liver cirrhosis, brain damage, mental retardation, cardiovascular diseases and mortality. Alcohol can also cause fetal malformation through the placenta. Alcoholism is an addictive behavior, which is one of the factors leading to illegal crimes. After drunkenness, alcohol destroys people's nervous function and psychological activities, which leads to disorder in the process of excitement suppression, confusion in thinking and will, inability to be independent, abnormal response to various external stimuli, impulsiveness, irritability, rudeness and uncontrollable, and also makes people give up their sense of responsibility, morality and legal concept, develop bad gang contacts and fair-weather friends, leading to crimes. At present, the number of teenagers drinking alcohol in China is on the rise. The survey shows that there are 65.438+0.3 billion drinkers in China, and the number of "small drinkers" is increasing day by day. According to reports, 60% of primary school students have drunk alcohol, and13 of middle school students will drink alcohol, among which girls account for a certain proportion, and 96% of middle school students have drunk alcohol for attending banquets within one year, which shows that the influence of alcohol on children and adolescents can not be ignored. Why do you drink? It can be analyzed from biological, psychological and social factors. Biologically speaking, alcohol is the root of addiction. Alcoholics have a strong alcohol metabolic enzyme system, and alcoholism has a genetic tendency. The alcoholism rate of identical twins is higher than that of the general population. When one parent drinks alcohol, the proportion of children drinking alcohol is high. The incidence of alcoholism in children of alcoholics is 4-5 times higher than that in the control group. Alcoholics with family tendency occur earlier, mostly around the age of 20, and are seriously poisoned and need treatment. Some people speculate that it may be because the body is congenitally lacking some necessary metabolites, which are compensated by alcohol; Or maybe there are too many substances that promote drinking in some way. Racial factors also have an impact. For example, people in the East lack wake-up dehydrogenase and are sensitive to alcohol, so they drink relatively little. If they are addicted to alcohol, they are more likely to be poisoned. The speculation of biological factors has not been confirmed by experimental research. Psychologically, drinkers often start drinking to relieve depression, nervousness, anxiety and depression, and alcohol will soon make people less nervous and fearful. Drinking behavior is an important "social lubricant", which can increase personal courage and behavioral ability. People with social maladjustment will open their own wine. Some people think that alcoholism and depression are a vicious circle of mutual cause and effect. Alcoholism is a persistent mental illness, and alcoholism is the result of personality defects or inadaptability to the environment. The characteristics of alcoholic personality are passive, dependent, egocentric, antisocial behavior, sulking easily, lack of self-esteem, alienation from others and so on. The psychological reasons for teenagers to drink alcohol are imitation, conformity, rebellion against their parents, and independence. They use excessive drinking to destroy themselves, punish their parents or express their desire to grow up. In terms of social factors, different times, regions, folk customs and social culture affect people's drinking behavior. Alcohol addiction has important social, cultural and religious roots and is an ancient and serious worldwide problem. Ancient people drank alcohol, except for medicinal or religious activities, mainly for entertainment; In the Middle Ages, Arabs introduced alcohol vapor to Europe. Alcohol is regarded by Europeans as an elixir of life and a panacea for all diseases. It is called "whisky", which means "the fountain of life". It is used for entertainment and socializing in hotels. Drinking in modern society has become a part of people's daily life, and it is indispensable for holidays, wedding banquets and business negotiations. In such a social environment, drinking behavior is constantly strengthened, and the prevalence of alcohol is increasingly not divided by age and gender. Under the influence of social pathology and individual psychopathology, drinkers can easily develop alcoholism and alcohol dependence. Although the socio-economic level is directly proportional to the level of alcohol consumption, the survey shows that alcoholism still occurs from time to time in slums, mental hospitals and prisons, socio-economic groups and ethnic groups plagued by unemployment at the bottom of society, cultural groups where traditional family ties and values have been destroyed or rapidly changed, and patients with mental and physical disorders caused by high social tension. In a word, alcoholism is the result of the interaction of many factors, and the prevention and treatment of alcoholism is an arduous task, and comprehensive measures must be taken. Patients with acute poisoning should be treated symptomatically and take some anti-alcoholism drugs or sedatives; To treat alcoholics with psychological and behavioral therapies such as aversion therapy, substitution therapy and environmental therapy, it is necessary to carry out effective health education in families, schools and communities and establish feasible drinking laws and regulations in the whole society. To fundamentally eliminate the phenomenon of alcohol addiction, it is difficult to work by biological means alone, and we must start from social, economic, psychological, medical and other aspects. This will be an extremely arduous system engineering, and mankind still has a long way to go.