The Institute for Scientific Research on Beverages (IREB) has published a summary of recent work on the issue of alcohol consumption among young people and prevention methods available. This summary appears in the Focus Alcohol collection (No. 16) and has communications updates from eleven European researchers presented at the latest scientific Day on this subject. Marie Choquet, President of the Scientific Committee of the IREB commented, “What seems to have changed in the alcohol use among teens today is that they are more numerous in the past ten years use alcohol as a drug, that is to say, to be used exclusively for its psychotropic effect. This phenomenon seems to fade with age, but can affect immediate or long-term on the brain. There is also good news : prevention is possible and effective if it is based on life skills, if it develops early in school and if it involves parents and educators.” In the summary, scientists, researchers, clinicians and professionals approach different issues of alcohol use among adolescents: recent epidemiological findings, difficulty of care, the health effects of specific alcohol abuse, and methods of prevention. The conclusion of the document describes the scientific consensus on the need to further research and improve knowledge, both in the field of short-and medium term occasional alcohol abuse on the brain than in the evaluation of prevention strategies.