Recent work has examined the relationship between stress and relapse to alcohol use in clinical populations. Few prospective studies, however, have examined stress as a precipitant of alcohol problems.
The present study is a longitudinal examination of the role of stress reactivity and alcohol craving in the etiology of alcohol problems in a sample of 41 (mean age = 20.8), heavy-drinking, young adults.
Participants completed a guided imagery exposure to stressful life events, followed by exposure to a neutral imagery control. Following the exposure, participants completed an alcohol cue exposure paradigm. Measures of negative mood (Profile of Mood States (POMS) depression/dejection scale), tension (POMS tension/anxiety scale) and alcohol craving (measured by the Alcohol Urge Questionnaire (AUQ)) were used as indicators of reactivity to stress and to alcohol cues. Polymorphisms of the corticotropin-releasing hormone binding protein (CRH-BP) gene and of the μ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene were examined as moderators of this relationship.
Results revealed that stress-induced negative mood predicted negative consequences of drinking (scores on the Drinker's Inventory of Consequences (DrInC-2R)), whereas stress and cue-induced alcohol craving did not predict alcohol use or problems.
Additionally, the CRH-BP genotype was found to moderate the relationship between stress-induced negative affect and the negative consequences of drinking.
The current study supports and extends laboratory research describing phenotypes of stress-induced alcohol craving.
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