Alzheimer’s Drug Reverses Brain Damage From Adolescent Alcohol Exposure in Rats

Newswise — DURHAM, N.C. — A drug used to slow cognitive decline in adults with Alzheimer’s disease appears to reverse brain inflammation and neuron damage in rats exposed to alcohol during adolescence.

In a study described in the journal Scientific Reports, Duke Health researchers sought to understand how intermittent binge drinking changes the hippocampus — a region long known to be critical for learning and memory, and also linked to anxiety — and whether the drug, donepezil, could reverse those changes. Rats were used as a model for teens and young adults who binge drink a few times a week.

“Research has begun to show that human adolescents who drink early and consistently…