Often both the alcohol misuse and psychological problems need to be treated at the same time.The numbing effects of alcohol and narcotics can become a coping strategy for traumatized people who are unable to dissociate themselves from the trauma. However, the altered or intoxicated state of the abuser prevents the full consciousness necessary for healing. Puberty
Gender differences may affect drinking patterns and the risk for developing alcohol use disorders. Sensation-seeking behaviors have been previously shown to be associated with advanced pubertal maturation, as well as the company of deviant peers. Early pubertal maturation, as indicated by advanced morphological and hormonal development, has been linked to increased alcohol usage in both male and female individuals. Additionally, when controlling for age, this association between advanced development and alcohol use still held true. Mechanisms
Excessive alcohol use causes neuroinflammation and leads to myelin disruptions and white matter loss. The developing adolescent brain is at increased risk of brain damage and other long-lasting alterations to the brain. Adolescents with an alcohol use disorder damage the hippocampal, prefrontal cortex, and temporal lobes. Chronic alcohol exposure can result in increased DNA damage in the brain, as well as reduced  DNA repair and increased neuronal cell death. Alcohol metabolism generates genotoxic acetaldehyde and reactive oxygen species.Until recently, the underlying mechanisms mediating the link between pubertal maturation and increased alcohol use in adolescence was poorly understood. Now research has suggested that sex steroid hormone levels may play a role in this interaction.
Pyknoachondrogenesis is a very rare, fatal, presumably autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by symptoms similar to those shown by patients with achondrogenesis alongside severely osteoclerotic bones and early death. The findings that can be seen in patients with this condition include hydrops fetalis, palpebral edemas, low-set ears, abdomen prominence, short neck, large head, depressed nasal bridge, shortening and widening of the trunk, severe short-limbed dwarfism, craniofacial hyperostosis, agenesis of the pubic bones, hypoplasia of the pelvic bones and ischium, poor (sometimes absent) ossification of the vertebrae and sacrum, webbing of the neck, and shortening of a long bone and the ribs. Pregnancies of babies with this condition generally arent compatible with life and they end up in miscarriage, stillbirth, or in neonatal death (that is, death soon after birth). Only 5 cases from Italy and the United States, respectively, have been described in medical literature. == References ==