Feature Channels: Alcohol and Alcoholism

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A review of studies exploring changes in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an increase in problematic alcohol use in some countries. Overall, the pandemic’s impact on drinking was mixed, and likely dependent on multiple factors including the local social distancing and alcohol-specific policies in force. Although several countries, including the US, have previously reported higher alcohol sales during the pandemic, synthesized information on the impact on alcohol consumption was lacking. Factors potentially linked to greater pandemic drinking include social isolation, anxiety and depression, blurring of work and leisure hours, loss of employment, and the shift from in-premise to home-based drinking. However, for some people, the same factors may have prompted a reduction in drinking. Alcohol-related policies, as well as lockdown restrictions, varied around the world. In certain countries, such as South Africa, alcohol sales were temporarily banned, whereas in parts

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Adults who attended a four-day music festival subsequently exhibited diminished attentional performance that could have impaired their driving even after they were no longer intoxicated, an innovative study suggests. Alcohol is known to affect drivers’ attention and responses, both during acute intoxication and residually (while hungover). Little is known about which elements of cognition are affected by residual alcohol impairment, how vulnerable we might be to those effects, or how they interact with fatigue, another common source of driving impairment. This raises concerns about, for example, the ability of festival goers to drive home safely, even without traceable alcohol in their blood or breath. Assessing cognitive and driving performance in real-world circumstances calls for creative experimentation. For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Australian investigators compared young adults’ performance on attention tasks in a controlled setting involving alco

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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol use has been on the rise ― and so is alcohol-associated liver disease. Two Penn State Health doctors discuss what alcohol does to the liver and when it’s time for a transplant in this week’s Medical Minute.

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Here are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Clinical Trials channel on Newswise.

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Many lesbian and bisexual women lack access to culturally sensitive and effective alcohol and mental health treatments, according to a new study. The findings suggest that sexual minority women (SMW), especially younger women, women of color, and those with low incomes, face multiple barriers to addressing problematic alcohol use. Previous research has shown that SMW experience higher rates of problem drinking and its negative consequences than heterosexual women. This partly reflects the impact of discrimination and its associated stress. Yet SMW appear relatively unlikely to seek help, and when they do, are less satisfied with it, for reasons including a lack of identity-affirming care and provider bias. Better understanding of SMW’s recognition of alcohol problems, motivation to reduce drinking, and treatment experiences — important influences on outcomes — as well as how their alcohol experiences vary by demographic characteristics can potentially help identify women at risk and in

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Maryland Smith researchers show that when advocating for subordinates, male or female, women become as competitive as men at work. Men, comparatively tend to advocate more strongly for other men.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that people with severe alcohol use disorder miss more than double the number of workdays missed by individuals without alcohol use disorder. The total number of missed workdays due to alcohol use disorder was 232 million.

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Approximately one-third of US adults experience recent unhealthy alcohol use, and of those, one in seven suffer from alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), according to a new US population-based study with substantial clinical implications. Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal in heavy drinkers are linked to considerable distress and functional impairment, poorer long-term drinking and other health outcomes, greater likelihood of hospitalization, and higher healthcare costs and morbidity and mortality risk. The estimated prevalence of AWS varies widely. Little is known about its manifestations among people in the general population with unhealthy alcohol use, limiting clinicians’ ability to identify patients at risk of AWS. Better information on AWS could enhance its prevention and timely, targeted treatment efforts.

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Symptoms of alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be reliably assessed with an Alcohol Symptom Checklist during routine care among patients who screen positive for high-risk drinking, according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The checklist can be easily administered in primary care settings, and can help providers diagnose AUD, determine its severity, and monitor changes in symptoms over time. To date, a lack of practical tools to reliably assess AUD symptoms has contributed to the underdiagnosis and undertreatment of AUD, despite the availability of effective treatments. Brief screening questionnaires can identify people with high-risk drinking and are increasingly used, but these do not assess symptoms required for an AUD diagnosis or the number of AUD symptoms present (required for determining the severity of a diagnosis). Although well-validated interviews for diagnosing AUD are available for research use, these require considerable time and training to admin

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Scoring of common genetic variants can help identify people at high risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. With prompt intervention, it may then be possible to prevent these individuals from developing AUD. For decades, a family history of AUD − which reflects both genetic and environmental risk − has been used to assess AUD liability. However, information on family history is not always available, and not all patients with AUD would be expected to have a positive family history. Therefore, relying on family history as the primary predictor of risk misses many high-risk individuals. For complex disorders like AUD, the common genetic variants that contribute to genetic risk each have a small effect on their own. However, when evaluated together, these variants can be used to calculate polygenic risk scores (PRS) – the weighted sum of multiple risk genes across the whole genome. PRS have shown promise in evaluating ris

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Don't miss these articles in our Staff Picks channel

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Worsening alcohol-related problems over the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with internal factors, such as loneliness and depression, more than household circumstances or income loss, a new study suggests. Studies of alcohol consumption during the pandemic have found varying impacts. The research has been limited, however, by its focus on alcohol consumption at certain points in time rather than variability in drinking and alcohol-related problems over the course of the pandemic. For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Canadian investigators examined individuals’ drinking the first nine months of the pandemic to see if meaningful subgroups emerged. They also examined how shifting alcohol use related to depression, social disconnection, living alone, parenting a child, and income loss, among other potential influences.

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A study on smokers who drink heavily finds that a combination treatment of the drug varenicline and nicotine replacement therapy is more effective for smoking cessation, and that efforts to quit smoking can indirectly lead to reduced drinking rates.

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Colorectal cancer has become prevalent among individuals younger than the age of 50 in recent years. Dr. Patrick Boland at Rutgers Cancer Institute shares what we know about this trend.

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Past research has shown that people drink more frequently and drink higher amounts of alcohol when they have more bars and restaurants in the neighborhoods where they live. But a new study, focusing on parents of young children, suggests it isn’t just where people live that’s important – it also matters where they spend their time.

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A recent study published in Current Eye Research evaluated seven studies looking at the relationship between alcohol consumption and AMD. The researchers found that moderate to high alcohol consumption was linked to a higher incidence of early AMD, compared with people who didn’t drink or who drank occasionally.

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Investigators at Cedars-Sinai have uncovered a new pathway that helps explain how consuming too much alcohol causes damage to the liver, specifically mitochondrial dysfunction in alcohol-associated liver disease. The discovery can also help lead to a new treatment approach for people suffering from the disease.

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People with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have a distorted perception of the richness of imagined future scenarios, according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The findings could have important implications for AUD treatment and rehabilitation. The ability to imagine specific future events is a type of mental time travel known as episodic future thinking (EFT). EFT contributes to a range of skills needed to safely navigate daily life, including planning, goal-directed behavior, and emotional regulation. Previous research has indicated that people with short-sighted maladaptive behaviors, such as drug misuse and excessive gambling, tend to imagine future events that lack vividness and specificity. Impaired EFT was also suspected to be of clinical importance in AUD, but little was known about the mechanisms underlying the impairment.

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Emotionally detaching from a traumatic experience, a psychological defense known as dissociation, may play a key role in nudging some people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) toward alcohol-related problems, a new study suggests. A large minority of people with PTSD also have a substance use disorder (SUD), implying that using alcohol or drugs is a form of self-medication among traumatized people. Dissociation, a common symptom of PTSD, is a psychological escape from threatening situations that substitutes for physical escape; it can reflect particularly harmful early-life trauma and more severe PTSD. Previous research has linked dissociation with alcohol and substance use. Understanding the relevant pathway, or mechanism, could potentially inform and expand treatment options and effectiveness — a critical advance, since co-occurring PTSD and SUD come with a magnified risk of suicidality, functional impairment, and death. For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Res

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Pacientes com cirrose relacionada ao consumo de álcool (ALC) têm piores resultados após receberem alta do tratamento intensivo, em comparação aos pacientes com cirrose associada a outras causas, de acordo com a nova pesquisa da Mayo Clinic.

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Los resultados de los pacientes con cirrosis por alcohol (ALC, por sus siglas en inglés) después de recibir el alta de cuidados intensivos son peores que los de los pacientes con cirrosis por otras causas, dice un nuevo estudio de Mayo Clinic.

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根据妙佑医疗国际(Mayo Clinic) 的新研究，相比其他病因的肝硬化患者，酒精性肝硬化（ALC）患者从重症监护室出院后的恢复结局较差。

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Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a new scoring system to help health care professionals predict the 30-day mortality risk for patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis, and the tool appears to more accurately identify patients at highest risk of death and those likely to survive.

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Exposure to alcohol in the womb exacerbates children’s vulnerability to social and environmental stressors and to mental health issues in adulthood, according to a new study. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is known to cause neurocognitive and physical conditions, including facial and growth abnormalities. Previous research has also linked PAE to long-term mental health effects, though these outcomes are not well understood. This is partly because the impact of alcohol exposure before birth is difficult to separate from the effects of other early social and environmental stressors, including adverse childhood experiences, that often accompany PAE. For the new study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigators compared mental health conditions among adults who’d been exposed to alcohol before birth with those who weren’t. They also explored the role of early childhood adversity and other social and environmental factors on mental health.

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A new study has reinforced the importance of implicit attitudes toward alcohol in escalating risk for heavy drinking as a young person transitions from adolescence to adulthood. Alcohol use peaks in emerging adulthood, with many associated health risks and negative consequences, so understanding risk and protective pathways to heavy drinking in this age group is a critical public health issue. In contrast to conscious information processing, implicit information processing occurs spontaneously, without deliberation or awareness. Although implicit alcohol attitudes are considered important in prompting alcohol use and maintaining heavy drinking, previous studies have provided mixed support for the association between positive (i.e. favorable) implicit alcohol attitudes and greater drinking. This may be partly attributable to difficulties in measuring implicit attitudes. A further complication is that associations between implicit alcohol attitudes and heavy drinking may be reciprocal: n

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People at risk of developing alcohol use disorder show lower functional connectivity between brain regions involved in processing facial expressions. Future psychoeducation programs focused on improving social and emotional processing may help prevent alcohol use disorder.

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In new research published in Liver International, researchers at Henry Ford Health System have found that people hospitalized for alcoholic hepatitis – a life threatening liver disease fueled by alcohol use – increased a staggering 50 percent in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers said the role of gender and race had no meaningful impact on the spike in admissions.

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Tulane researchers say that despite vaccinations and lifted restrictions, mental health issues continue to be a crucial concern as the COVID-19 pandemic enters a recovery phase.

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Here are some of the latest articles we've posted in the Behavioral Science channel.

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A study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research has underscored the importance of family in protecting against alcohol use among American Indian adolescents, especially those struggling with depression.

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Patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis have poorer outcomes after ICU discharge, compared to patients with cirrhosis linked to other causes, according to new Mayo Clinic research.

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The latest research news from the Health Disparities Channel.

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A new study suggests that interventions modifying the time perspective of people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) may improve their recovery outcomes. Although more than 50 million adults in the US are in remission from AUD, our understanding of recovery is limited. The life-history theory emphasizes humans’ adaptation to environmental factors, predicting how we allocate energy and resources to different goals. Stable environments motivate longer-term goals and delayed investments. Such “slower” life-history strategies include education, self-care, and saving money, reflecting decision-making based on valuing future rewards. Unpredictable environments, in contrast, position us to favor short-term goals. “Faster” life-history strategies include brief relationships, early reproduction, reduced self-care, and substance use. In these scenarios, decision-making is influenced by the temporal window (i.e., how far in the future one can imagine and integrate into present decisions; as measured

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Sensors that measure alcohol concentration through the skin can provide valid measures of drinking intensity and predict alcohol consequences among young adult drinkers, according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Youth alcohol misuse is linked to many short- and long-term negative consequences, and finding ways to predict and prevent these consequences is an important goal for research and public health. In research studies, prediction of short-term consequences is typically based on the number of drinks that an individual reports consuming in a given drinking episode. Self-reports can be retrospective, in which the person reports on their consumption the previous day, or episodic, in which the individual provides real-time reports via smart devices. However, self-reported data have some limitations: number of drinks is an imperfect proxy for biologic alcohol concentrations (and therefore for alcohol-related risk), and self-report accuracy diminishes the mo

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People who need to drink relatively high amounts of alcohol before feeling its effects, a genetically influenced risk factor for future heavy drinking and alcohol problems, may have differences in brain connectivity that impair their ability to interpret facial expressions and recognize their own intoxication, a new study suggests. The paper, in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, is believed to be the first to demonstrate differences in brain connectivity between people with low and high responses to alcohol. Varying levels of responses to alcohol — for example, how many drinks a person consumes before feeling intoxicated — are known to be related to neurobiological processing. Low responders, who drink more alcohol before feeling affected by it, are at greater risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD) than high responders, who feel the effects of fewer drinks. Scientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are exploring the possibility that low responders are less a

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People in the U.S. had a billion more drinks per month from February 2020 to November 2020. A Penn State Heath addiction expert discusses when it’s time to quit alcohol.

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Drinking in the daytime, colloquially known as “day drinking”, is characterized by heavy alcohol consumption and is linked to other risky substance use behaviors in college students, according to a report in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Despite a lack of research on student day drinking, there is evidence that certain types of daytime drinking – such as social drinking before major sporting events, sometimes called tailgating – are characterized by particularly heavy alcohol use. However, it was unclear how prevalent and risky the broader behavior of day drinking is. The current study aimed to assess how many, and how often, students engaged in day drinking, and whether “day-drinking days” – defined as days when drinking started before 4pm - were linked to heavy drinking, negative alcohol consequences, and risky substance use behavior.

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For some, attending holiday events with alcohol present, being around the people with whom they used to drink or the smell of their favorite drink can be hard to resist, especially for those with alcohol use disorder.

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Teens and young adults who use cannabis in the US are considerably more likely to drink alcohol compared to their peers who don’t use cannabis, a study has found.

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A new study has shown that alcohol-related diseases are driven by both environmental and genetic factors, a proportion of which are not shared with the underlying alcohol use disorder (AUD).

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Teens who experience social tensions related to their drinking, such as fighting with friends, may be at greater risk for hazardous alcohol use in early adulthood than those whose alcohol consequences are limited to hangovers and blackouts, a new study has found.

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Smartphone apps to track blood alcohol abound, but until now had little evidence to show they help manage drinking in young adults. A new University of Florida study shows that heavy drinkers age 21-25 who weren’t trying to cut back on alcohol reduced their drinking by four and a half drinks per week while using the apps — nearly one drink less on each day they imbibed.

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A new study that has important implications for the understanding of sex differences in alcohol consumption has shown that stress alone leads to excessive drinking in women but not men. The study, from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology, used a simulated bar environment to test how stress affected whether participants drank more than intended.

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A pilot study at the University of Washington in Seattle has shown that messaging on shifting “drinking norms” could help curb intentions to use alcohol among college students. Young people’s drinking is known to be influenced by their (often erroneous) perceptions of how their peers drink. To date, social norms interventions on campuses have focused on correcting students’ overestimates of how much alcohol their peers are consuming. Such interventions reflect the current state of normative behavior, known as static norms. In contrast, dynamic norms emphasize that a behavioral norm is shifting over time. These norms could be important in health behavior interventions, given emerging evidence that people align their behavior with social norms that they anticipate being prevalent in the future, even more so than the current norm. The new study, reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, tested the concept of integrating dynamic norms messaging into alcohol interventions.