from Purdue University
Alcohol and energy drinks are considered separate physical risks for teens, but combining the two may be much worse. Researchers at Purdue University used laboratory animals, since these studies cannot be performed in young humans. They found when high levels of caffeine from energy drinks were mixed with alcohol and given to adolescent laboratory animals, they showed physical and neurochemical signs similar to animals given cocaine. Researchers say they clearly saw effects in the adolescent animals of the combined energy and alcoholic drinks that they would not see from drinking one or the other—leading researchers to conclude the brains had been changed in such a way that they are more likely to abuse pleasurable substances as adults.