Press Release - Social contacts, self-confidence crucial to successful recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous

Among the many ways that participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) helps its members stay sober, two appear to be most important – spending more time with individuals who support efforts towards sobriety and increased confidence in the ability to maintain abstinence in social situations. In a paper that will appear in the journal Addiction and has been released online, researchers report the first study to examine the relative importance to successful recovery of the behavior changes associated with participation in AA. > > > > Read More

2ND International SAFFrance Colloquium, 15- 16 December 2011, Strasbourg

The second international conference of SAFFrance to be organised on the 15th and 16th of December in Strasbourg is linked to the first conference organised in the Senate in September 2009 to which the higher head of state participated.

Its aim will be to facilitate the professionals’ awareness on the link between prenatal alcohol, brain damage, difficulties to learn and social maladjustment and hence, on the way to prevent these issues. > > > > Read More

Drinkaware's 'why let good times go bad' returns for 2011

The industry funded body Drinkaware has re-launched its why let good times go bad? campaign to 'tackle binge drinking amongst young adults'.

Messages were placed on billboards, poster sites and in stations, supporting campaign activity taking place in pubs, clubs, bars and supermarkets 'ensuring that young adult drinkers are targeted at every stage of their night out'. The campaign includes 3 main tips:

• 'It’s not a race, remember to pace'
• 'Have something to eat to stay on your feet'
• 'Try to make every third drink a soft one' > > > > Read More
  

Reinforcement of Smoking and Drinking: Tobacco Marketing Strategies Linked With Alcohol in the United States

We investigated tobacco companies’ knowledge about concurrent use of tobacco and alcohol, their marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol, and the benefits tobacco companies sought from these marketing activities.

We performed systematic searches on previously secret tobacco industry documents, and we summarized the themes and contexts of relevant search results.

Tobacco company research confirmed the association between tobacco use and alcohol use. Tobacco companies explored promotional strategies linking cigarettes and alcohol, such as jointly sponsoring special events with alcohol companies to lower the cost of sponsorships, increase consumer appeal, reinforce brand identity, and generate increased cigarette sales. They also pursued promotions that tied cigarette sales to alcohol purchases, and cigarette promotional events frequently featured alcohol discounts or encouraged alcohol use.

Tobacco companies’ numerous marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol may have reinforced the use of both substances. Because using tobacco and alcohol together makes it harder to quit smoking, policies prohibiting tobacco sales and promotion in establishments where alcohol is served and sold might mitigate this effect. Smoking cessation programs should address the effect that alcohol consumption has on tobacco use.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: pling@medicine.ucsf.edu

Alcohol Advertising at Boston Subway Stations: An Assessment of Exposure by Race and Socioeconomic Status

We investigated the frequency of alcohol ads at all 113 subway and streetcar stations in Boston and the patterns of community exposure stratified by

race, socioeconomic status, and age.

We assessed the extent of alcohol advertising at each station in May 2009. We measured gross impressions and gross rating points (GRPs) for the entire Greater Boston population and for Boston public school student commuters. We compared the frequency of alcohol advertising between neighborhoods with differing demographics.

For the Greater Boston population, alcohol advertising at subway stations generated 109 GRPs on a typical day. For Boston public school students in grades 5 to 12, alcohol advertising at stations generated 134 GRPs. Advertising at stations in low-poverty neighborhoods generated 14.1 GRPs and at stations in high-poverty areas, 63.6 GRPs.

Alcohol ads reach the equivalent of every adult in the Greater Boston region and the equivalent of every 5th- to 12th-grade public school student each day. More alcohol ads were displayed in stations in neighborhoods with high poverty rates than in stations in neighborhoods with low poverty rates.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: gentry.lisa@gmail.com

Low-Risk Lifestyle Behaviors and All-Cause Mortality: Findings From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III Mortality Study

We examined the relationship between 4 low-risk behaviors—never smoked, healthy diet, adequate physical activity, and moderate alcohol consumption—and mortality in a representative sample of people in the United States.

We used data from 16958 participants aged 17 years and older in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III Mortality Study from 1988 to 2006.

The number of low-risk behaviors was inversely related to the risk for mortality. Compared with participants who had no low-risk behaviors, those who had all 4 experienced reduced all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR]=0.37; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.28, 0.49), mortality from malignant neoplasms (AHR=0.34; 95% CI=0.20, 0.56), major cardiovascular disease (AHR=0.35; 95% CI=0.24, 0.50), and other causes (AHR=0.43; 95% CI=0.25, 0.74). The rate advancement periods, representing the equivalent risk from a certain number of years of chronological age, for participants who had all 4 high-risk behaviors compared with those who had none were 11.1 years for all-cause mortality, 14.4 years for malignant neoplasms, 9.9 years for major cardiovascular disease, and 10.6 years for other causes.

Low-risk lifestyle factors exert a powerful and beneficial effect on mortality.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: eford@cdc.gov

The Alcohol Identification and Brief Advice e-learning project (Alcohol IBA)

The Alcohol Identification and Brief Advice e-learning project (Alcohol IBA) helps professionals with identifying those individuals whose drinking might be impacting on their health and delivering simple, structured advice. It has been developed in partnership with the Department of Health's Alcohol Policy Team and e-Learning for Healthcare .

This e-learning course has been developed by NHS Portsmouth and e-Learning for Healthcare to provide the learning for hospital staff to identify and provide brief advice to those whose alcohol use may be impacting on their health. The course was conceived and designed by Iain Armstrong and builds on the successful courses for IBA in Primary Care and Community Pharmacy developed by the Department of Health. IBA e-learning in hospital settings is currently available on the Alcohol Learning Centre and will soon be available through National Learning Management System (NLMS) which is linked to the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR).

Alcohol IBA has been designed to provide the skills and understanding to deliver IBA in line with the National Occupational Standard AH10 - 'employ techniques to help individuals adopt sensible drinking behaviour'. > > > > Read More

Global Actions: September 14, 2011

Key Recent Milestones: Self-Regulation in India

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has introduced a new process for companies wishing to file complaints regarding competitors’ advertisements. The Fast Track Complaints Redress Process was designed by the self-regulatory organization to provide speedier solutions to intra-industry complaints.

Along with other leading industry associations, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) are working to strengthen India’s long-standing self-regulatory system.

The new system enhances the efficiency and speed of handling of consumer complaints, now ensuring that all complaints are resolved within seven days, with a final decision from the Fast Track Complaints Council (FTCC). Four to six months from introduction, the ASCI board will review the Redress Process.

Global Actions in Focus: China

Drink drive training workshops for local staff and traffic police will be held September 16 through 25 in Xi’an and Nanjing, both prominent cities in Chinese history and culture, with populations of eight million and five million, respectively.

Global Actions’ partners/stakeholders in China include the China Center for Health Education (CCHE), Xi’an Center for Health Education, Jiangsu Center for Health Education, local government agencies, and beverage alcohol producers that include Diageo and Pernod Ricard. International road safety expert Ray Shuey will lead training of the enhanced enforcement program.

“Thanks to CCHE, local facilitators, and the alcohol industry, the projects are progressing,” said Global Actions China Country Coordinator James Yu. “We hope these workshops will encourage participants to implement interventions to reduce the rate of alcohol-related road traffic crashes in these major cities.”

“For the workshops, held separately in Xi’an and Nanjing, one program manager and one practitioner involved in local action of drink driving intervention will attend,” said CCHE’s Qian Ling. “ICAP and the CCHE team have invited health educators from more than 30 provincial institutes for health education to attend the workshops and learn skills about program design and evaluation.”

What’s Happening Next

· Advertising News: The Consolidated ICC Code website will launch globally on September 15. Visit www.codescentre.com for information on global best practice and self-regulation of advertising and marketing communications.

· Nigeria: September 20-21, Capacity-building program for the Lagos-Apapa intervention.

· Mexico: September 28-29, Drink drive summit in Mexico City.

· Ukraine: September 30, World Federations of Advertisers (WFA) will be participating in a self-regulation conference in Kiev.

Press Release - European Region has heaviest drinking in the world

The 53 countries in the WHO European Region meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan from 12 to 15 September 2011 are endorsing a plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. In this Region, alcohol is the second largest risk factor for the death and disease burden, just after tobacco use.

“The harmful use of alcohol is a priority public health concern. The evidence supporting this action plan is large, diverse and persuasive,” said Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “Countries are well aware of the expensive and devastating damage it causes and our action plan is intended to provide them with technical guidance and support on what can and should be done to reduce this harm.”

The WHO European Region is the heaviest drinking region in the world, with a prevalence of heavy episodic drinking in over 20% of adults. Alcohol consumption reportedly decreased during the 1990s, then increased and stabilized at a higher level between 2004 and 2006. Consumption varies greatly among countries, with a European average of 9.24 litres of pure alcohol equivalent consumed per person per year. The overall tendency is that consumption has decreased in western Europe and increased in eastern Europe during the last 15 years, although there are huge differences among countries – see the European status report on alcohol and health 2010. > > > > Read More

Predicting university undergraduates’ binge-drinking behavior: A comparative test of the one- and two-component theories of planned behavior

This study provides a comparative test of the one- and two-component theories of planned behavior (TPB) in the context of university undergraduates’ binge-drinking.

Participants (N = 120) self-completed questionnaire measures of all TPB constructs at time 1 and subsequent binge-drinking at time 2 (two-weeks later). The data were analyzed using a combination of path analyses and bootstrapping procedures.

Both models accounted for a substantial proportion of the variation in behavior.

However, the two-component TPB provided a significantly better fit to the data, with the total direct and indirect effects accounting for 90% of the variance.

Intention was the only direct predictor of behavior. Instrumental attitude, affective attitude and self-efficacy had indirect effects.

Although health interventions could usefully target these cognitive antecedents, simulation analyses, modelling the effects of cognition change on behavior, showed that only large- (0.8 SD) sized changes to affective attitude, or moderate-sized changes to all of these cognitions in combination were sufficient to reduce binge-drinking.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: mark.a.elliott@strath.ac.uk

Memory associations between negative emotions and alcohol on the lexical decision task predict alcohol use in women

Implicit alcohol expectancies, or beliefs about alcohol which exist in the form of automatic memory associations, are thought to uniquely affect drinking behavior. Research also has indicated that there may be a distinctive relationship between negative reinforcement and alcohol use in women. However, the most common measures used to examine implicit alcohol cognitions may be insufficient to examine associations involving negative reinforcement.

The current study utilized the Lexical Decision Task (LDT) to examine the relationship between implicit alcohol cognitions and reported drinking in a sample of college women. Seventy-eight female participants completed a LDT including alcohol- and emotion-words, questionnaire measures of explicit alcohol expectancies, and a measure of drinking behavior at baseline and after two months.

Strong associations between negative emotion-words and alcohol-words (as measured by the LDT) were found to predict drinking at follow up, and to account for unique variance in drinking beyond the contribution of explicit measures.

In addition, women who reported heavier drinking in response to social conflict on an explicit measure showed stronger priming of alcohol words by negative emotion words, thus implying that the LDT may tap into implicit cognitions related to alcohol use as a method of coping.

These findings suggest that the LDT is sensitive to negative-reinforcement associations in a way that other measures are not.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: mailto:janellen@unm.edu

Personality and alcohol use: The role of impulsivity

Research has shown that personality traits associated with impulsivity influence alcohol use during emerging adulthood, yet relatively few studies have examined how distinct facets of impulsivity are associated with alcohol use and abuse.

We examine the influence of impulsivity traits on four patterns of alcohol use including frequency of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, binge drinking, and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in a community sample of young individuals (N = 190).

In multivariate regression analyses that controlled for peer and parental alcohol use, psychological distress, and developmental correlates (i.e., college, marriage, employment) in emerging adulthood, we found that urgency and sensation seeking were consistently related to all four constructs of alcohol use.

The present study suggests that distinct impulsivity traits may play different roles in escalation of alcohol use and development of AUDs during emerging adulthood.



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Request Reprint E-Mail: hshin@bu.edu

Joint Meeting of the NIDA and NIAAA Councils - September 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011
NIDA and NIAAA
Total Running Time: 03:10:27


View Video

NIAAA Spectrum Volume 3, Issue 3, September 2011

In This Issue

Features
1 NIAAA Advances Research on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
2 Imaging Helps Researchers See Into Alcohol-Exposed Brains


Photo Essay
2 Brain scans Reveal the Damage of Fetal Alcohol Exposure


Charticle
4 One in Eight Pregnant Women Drinks


News From The Field
5 Receptor May Help Explain Susceptibility to Addiction
5 Heavily Advertised Alcohol Brands May Attract MoreUnderage Drinkers
6 Research Shows the Value of a Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21
6 Evidence Mounts That Binge Drinking Harms Adolescent Brain Development

Questions With...
7 Kenneth Warren, Ph.D.


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Alcohol Awareness Week 2011: 14 - 20 November

Alcohol Awareness Week (AWW) will run from 14^th November to 20^th November 2011, during which Alcohol Concern will launch an 'Alcohol Charter' for a world free from alcohol harm.

The ‘alcohol charter’ campaign has the following goals:

1. 100,000 people signing up to the charter
2. All MPs and Peers signing up to the charter
3. Charter adopted in forthcoming alcohol strategy
4. Charter paves way for political discussion on precise goals and policies needed > > > > Read More
   

Determining the Relative Importance of the Mechanisms of Behavior Change within Alcoholics Anonymous: A Multiple Mediator Analysis

Evidence indicates AA participation reduces relapse risk but less is known about the mechanisms through which AA confers this benefit. Initial studies indicate self-efficacy, negative affect, adaptive social networks, and spiritual practices are mediators of this effect, but because these have been tested in isolation, their relative importance remains elusive.

This study tested multiple mediators simultaneously to help determine the most influential pathways.

Prospective, statistically controlled, naturalistic investigation examined the extent to which purported mechanisms (i.e., self-efficacy, negative affect, social networks, and spirituality/religiosity) mediated the effect of AA attendance on alcohol outcomes controlling for baseline outcome values, mediators, treatment, and other confounders.

Nine clinical sites within the United States.

Adults (N = 1,726) suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD) with varying levels of severity initially enrolled in a randomized study with two arms: Aftercare (n = 774); and Outpatient (n-952) comparing three outpatient treatments (Project MATCH)

AA attendance during treatment; mediators at 9 months; and, outcomes (Percent Days Abstinent [PDA] and Drinks per Drinking Day [DDD]) at 15 months.

Among outpatients the effect of AA attendance on alcohol outcomes was explained primarily by adaptive social network changes and increases in social abstinence self-efficacy. Among more impaired aftercare patients, in addition to mediation through adaptive network changes and increases in social self-efficacy, AA lead to better outcomes through increasing spirituality/religiosity and by reducing negative affect .

The degree to which mediators explained the relationship between AA and outcomes ranged from 43%-67%.

AA facilitates recovery by mobilizing several processes simultaneously, including influential social change and spirituality/religiosity.


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Request Reprint E-Mail: jkelly11@partners.org

News Release - Public-Private Partnership Helps Teens Escape Drugs, Alcohol and Crime

Governor Bev Perdue today announced a partnership between state agencies and two North Carolina foundations that will expand the successful Reclaiming Futures program from a model to a statewide initiative that helps youths in the juvenile justice system beat problems with drugs and alcohol. This tested and proven program will help put teenagers on a path toward finishing high school ready, for a career, college or technical training. > > > > Read More

Live footage from Ireland's First Alcohol Free Comedy Club

'Ireland's First Alternative Alcohol Free Comedy Club was full to the rafters and a roaring success!' tweeted Dil Wickremasinghe, founder of Dublin's new club. We had 'great acts, great audience & a great venue, plus a full house'. Hosting Ireland's first alternative alcohol-free comedy club, Accents Lounge Dublin offered 'the most fun you can have with your clothes on' at the opening night, Monday 5th September. > > > > Read More

"Other teens drink and use marijuana but my kids don't," parents say in new poll

The latest C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health finds that few parents (10 percent) believe their own teens, ages 13 to 17 years old, have used alcohol in the last year and even fewer (5 percent) believe their own teens have used marijuana in the last year.

Those levels are substantially below what teens themselves reported in the latest Monitoring the Future study, where 52 percent of 10th graders reported drinking alcohol in the last year and 28 percent of 10th graders reported using marijuana in the last year.

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Translational Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Reveals Excessive Central Glutamate Levels During Alcohol Withdrawal in Humans and Rats

In alcoholism, excessive glutamatergic neurotransmission has long been implicated in the acute withdrawal syndrome and as a key signal for dependence-related neuroplasticity. Our understanding of this pathophysiological mechanism originates largely from animal studies, but human data are needed for translation into successful medication development.

We measured brain glutamate levels during detoxification in alcohol-dependent patients (n = 47) and in healthy control subjects (n = 57) as well as in a rat model of alcoholism by state-of-the-art ¹H-magnetic magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3 and 9.4 T, respectively.

We found significantly increased glutamate levels during acute alcohol withdrawal in corresponding prefrontocortical regions of treatment-seeking alcoholic patients and alcohol-dependent rats versus respective control subjects. The augmented spectroscopic glutamate signal is likely related to increased glutamatergic neurotransmission because, enabled by the high field strength of the animal scanner, we detected a profoundly elevated glutamate/glutamine ratio in alcohol-dependent rats during acute withdrawal. All dependence-induced metabolic alterations normalize within a few weeks of abstinence in both humans and rats.

Our data provide first-time direct support from humans for the glutamate hypothesis of alcoholism, demonstrate the comparability of human and animal magnetic resonance spectroscopy responses, and identify the glutamate/glutamine ratio as potential biomarker for monitoring disease progression.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: wolfgang.sommer@zi-mannheim.de