Alcohol advertising in new media Trends in Alcohol Marketing

European figures are not publicly available, but American alcohol advertising expenditure figures show that new media investment by the industry are relatively small compared to other media, but are increasing fast . Relatively small investments in alcohol marketing expenditures reflect low costs and easy accessibility of new media. So although the price is small, the value of marketing in new media for alcohol advertisers is high.

European youngsters (16-24 years old) spend an increasing amount of time on the internet Since 2007, they spend on average more time on the internet than they do watching television. Alcohol producers have kept in pace with this development and know how to reach these new consumers through new media.

This has, for example, been proven by an investigation by Marin Institute, which shows the large amount of paid alcohol advertisements on the social network website Facebook. Other research shows that one in every five Dutch youngsters (age 12-17) has ever visited an alcohol producer’s website.

The following EUCAM trend report shows how alcohol advertisers make use of new media to reach their target groups. It seems that especially young people are reached and attracted by the marketing practices in new media.

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SLAN 2007: Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition in Ireland. Alcohol use in Ireland: A profile of drinking patterns and alcohol-related harm fr

The SLÁN 2007 survey contained a series of questions relating to alcohol use.

These included questions about frequency (how often) an quantity (how much) of alcohol consumed, as well as questions about alcohol-related harm.

Quantity of alcohol consumed was assessed by asking respondents how many standard drinks were taken, a ‘standard’ drink being defined as a half pint or a glass of beer, lager or cider; a single measure of spirits; a single glass of wine, sherry or port; or a bottle of alcopop (long neck).

This report forms part of a series of reports which seek to contextualise the SLÁN 2007 findings (see p. iv for full list of SLÁN 2007 reports).

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The Human and Economic Cost of Alcohol Abuse in New Mexico, 2006

Highlights

• Almost 1,000 deaths in New Mexico were related to alcohol in 2006, representing more than 27,000 years of potential life lost.

• The economic costs associated with alcohol abuse in New Mexico in 2006 amounted to an estimated $2.5 billion.

• These costs were 26 times greater than the $97 million in tax revenues collected from alcohol sales. Alcohol-related tax revenue covered less than 4% of the economic cost of alcohol abuse.

• The economic burden of alcohol abuse amounted to over $1,250 for every person in the state.

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News Release - Harm Reduction for Alcohol: An Idea Whose Time Has Arrived

There is a new game in town when it comes to dealing with alcohol problems. It is harm reduction, offering pragmatic and realistic strategies where traditional approaches to alcohol problems have failed.

Spearheading this movement is a group called HAMS -- Harm Reduction, Alcohol Abstinence and Moderation Support. HAMS is a free-of-charge, lay-led support and informational group for people who drink alcohol.

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Here's jeers!

IT IS not often you see a fight among anti-booze campaigners. But last week a small meeting room in Carlton hosted a doozy. These were academics, so there were no fisticuffs. But the evening had everything apart from a punch-up: evidence for conspiracy, a confession of accepting ''tainted'' money, claims of democracy denied and of free speech under threat. As with so many fights, this one began with alcohol.

The occasion was a public forum titled ''Public health experts talk about DrinkWise''. DrinkWise calls itself a ''not-for-profit, independent research and social change agency'' that is ''dedicated to building a safer drinking culture in Australia''. . . . . .

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The Potential Benefits of Alcohol Excise Tax Increases in Maryland

This report summarizes the results of hundreds of studies of alcohol excise taxes, health and safety.

The evidence is clear: alcohol excise tax increases save lives, reduce health care costs, create and preserve jobs, and prevent alcohol‐related problems.

These tax increases are a win‐win for the State: they prevent and reduce drinking and death among young people as well as among heavy drinkers, and they bring in additional revenues which can be used to create and preserve jobs and services.

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Early recovery from alcohol dependence: Factors that promote or impede abstinence

The objectives of this prospective follow-up study were to identify factors that promote or impede the early recovery process and to examine whether drinking status at 4 weeks predicts later abstinence.

Patients with alcohol use disorders were assessed by clinical and semistructured interviews upon entering addiction treatment (N = 175) and were followed up biweekly to monitor their alcohol use.

During the first 4 weeks of treatment, 57% (n = 100) of patients slipped or relapsed on alcohol, whereas 43% (n = 75) were fully abstinent.

Patients who slipped or relapsed were more likely to report nondependent use of a secondary substance, meet criteria for a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Axis II Cluster B personality disorder, have a higher level of impulsivity, and have more severe social problems at intake. The final logistic regression model accounted for 37% of the variance in drinking status.

Patients who slipped or relapsed early in treatment were likely to continue to struggle to maintain abstinence at 12 weeks.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: dara.charney@mcgill.ca

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DRUGS AND SOCIETY IN AFRICA Ninth Biennial International Conference

The African Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA) is pleased to announce its Ninth Biennial International Conference on “Drugs and Society in Africa” scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria, in July 2010. The organizers invite you to this very important conference that will focus on the role of alcohol and other drug use in the HIV/AIDS epidemics in different African societies. Interested researchers in various disciplines, policy experts, practitioners, representatives of NGOs and students are encouraged to submit abstracts of papers for presentation at the conference.

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Profiles of Protection from Substance Use among Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to explore whether adolescents (N = 10,287) could be classified into homogeneous subgroups based on their protective factors and, if so, whether these constellations of protection differentially relate to adolescents’ lifetime and 30-day alcohol and tobacco use.

Latent class analysis with eight protective factors—four internal and four external—were used to identify the underlying latent class structure. Five profiles of protection emerged: Adequate Protection (54%), Adequate External Protection (9%), Adequate Protection with Low Adult Communication (16%), Adequate Protection with Risky Friends (9%), and Inadequate Protection (12%).

Lifetime alcohol use was associated with only a modest increase in odds of belonging to the Adequate External or Low Adult Communication latent classes, but an enormous increase in odds of having Inadequate Protection or Risky Friends. Similar effects were found for past month alcohol use.

Unlike alcohol use, which was related most strongly with membership in the Risky Friends latent class (relative to Adequate Protection), cigarette use was most strongly related to membership in the Inadequate Protection latent class.

Findings can be used to inform prevention programs as they illustrate the relationships that exist between adolescents’ profiles of protection and substance use.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: syvertsen@psu.edu
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Impact of Ethanol on the Developing GABAergic System

Alcohol intake during pregnancy has a tremendous impact on the developing brain. Embryonic and early postnatal alcohol exposures have been investigated experimentally to elucidate the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders' (FASD) milieu, and new data have emerged to support a devastating effect on the GABAergic system in the adult and developing nervous system.

GABA is a predominantly inhibitory neurotransmitter that during development excites neurons and orchestrates several developmental processes such as proliferation, migration, differentiation, and synaptogenesis.

This review summarizes and brings new data on neurodevelopmental aspects of the GABAergic system with FASD in experimental telencephalic models.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: daniuzi@anato.ufrj.br or Yamasaki.e@unic.ac.cy
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Alcohol taxation reform: considerations and options

Executive summary

•Economic efficiency, equity, and enforceability and compliance are the general principles that guide taxation policy.

•Inconsistencies exist in the current alcohol taxation regime when viewed against these principles. For example, the excise on low-strength draught beer is about one fifth that on low-strength packaged beer, while the tax on cask wine is only a fraction of that on mid-strength beer even though wine has higher alcohol content. The amount of wine equalisation tax (WET) is unrelated to alcohol content. These differences seem unrelated to policy objectives.

•In practice, alcohol taxation entails trade-offs among different considerations such as the need to raise revenue, the effects on consumer behaviour, and the ease of administration. However, scope exists for considerable improvement in alcohol taxation.

•Reform options based on the general taxation
principles include broadening the tax base, eliminating preferential treatment of certain beverages and producers, applying a single excise rate, structuring excise so that rates rise as alcohol content increases, and abolishing the WET and replacing it with excise.

•Taxing alcoholic beverages on the basis of alcohol content, combined with a graduated taxation rate, whereby the tax rate is higher the higher the alcohol content of the beverage, would represent a considerable improvement on the current alcohol taxation regime. The evidence indicates that combining a graduated tax based on alcohol content with an increase in the overall tax take would reduce the very considerable social costs of excessive alcohol consumption.

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Post-transcriptional regulation of BK channel splice variant stability by miR-9 underlies neuroadaptation to alcohol

Tolerance represents a critical component of addiction. The large conductance calcium-and voltage-activated potassium channel (BK) is a well-established alcohol target, and an important element in behavioral and molecular alcohol tolerance.

We tested whether microRNA, a newly-discovered class of gene expression regulators, plays a role in the development of tolerance.

We show that in adult mammalian brain alcohol upregulates microRNA (miR-9) and mediates post-transcriptional reorganization in BK mRNA splice variants by miR-9-dependent destabilization of BK mRNAs containing 3’UTRs with a miR-9 Recognition Element (MRE). Different splice variants encode BK isoforms with different alcohol sensitivities.

Computational modeling indicates that this miR-9 dependent mechanism contributes to alcohol tolerance. Moreover, this mechanism can be extended to regulation of additional miR-9 targets relevant to alcohol abuse.

Our results describe a novel mechanism of multiplex regulation of stability of alternatively spliced mRNA by miRNA in drug adaptation and neuronal plasticity.

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European health and safety organisations call for stricter EU-coordinated alcohol policies

Twelve European health and safety umbrella organisations call for stricter EU-coordinated alcohol policies.

In a joint policy statement released today, the twelve organisations urge the EU Council of Ministers of Health:

- to ensure minimum pricing policies, sales restrictions and discount bans in all Member States;

- to introduce a EU- labelling system for alcohol products informing consumers of the specific risks related to alcohol consumption; and

- to adopt the principle of zero tolerance to alcohol consumption before driving or at work and to reduce BAC- levels to 0,2 maximum throughout Europe.

Alcohol on the agenda of EU-Council

On the 30th of November 2009, the EU Ministers of Health will gather in the EU-Council for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs. At that occasion, the Swedish Presidency will propose a stronger EU-coordinated approach in alcohol policies. . . . . . .

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Effect of topiramate treatment on ethanol consumption in rats

Results from clinical studies have shown that topiramate effectively reduces alcohol consumption in a population of heavy-drinking alcohol-dependent humans.

The results from this study establish in a rodent model that topiramate effectively and persistently reduces ethanol consumption and suggests that its efficacy may depend on genetic vulnerability but not level of drinking.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: wlynch@virginia.edu
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Evidence of long-term expression of behavioral sensitization to both cocaine and ethanol in dopamine transporter knockout mice

Locomotor sensitization, defined as the progressive and enduring enhancement of the motor stimulant effects elicited by repeated exposure to drugs of abuse, is the consequence of drug-induced cellular neuroadaptations that likely contribute to addictive behavior.

Neuroadaptations within the dopaminergic system have been shown to be involved both in the induction phase and in the long-term expression phase of sensitization upon drug readministration after withdrawal.

In spite of the absence of the DAT, mutant mice were able to develop long-term expression of sensitization to cocaine. Compared to their wild-type littermates, DAT-KO mice exhibited a markedly increased acute ethanol-evoked locomotor activity and developed stronger behavioral sensitization to ethanol during both induction and long-term expression phases. Interestingly, this increased ethanol-induced sensitization was potentiated by the DBA/2 genetic background.

These findings, showing that DAT deletion facilitates sensitization, suggest a cross-sensitization-like effect between genetic- and pharmacological-induced hyperdopaminergia.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: bruno.giros@snv.jussieu.fr


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Rimonabant (SR141716) has no effect on alcohol self-administration or endocrine measures in nontreatment-seeking heavy alcohol drinkers

There is an extensive literature showing that the CB₁ cannabinoid receptor antagonist rimonabant (SR141716) decreases alcohol consumption in animals, but little is known about its effects in human alcohol drinkers.

We conclude that the daily administration of 20 mg of rimonabant for 2 weeks has no effect on alcohol consumption in nontreatment-seeking heavy alcohol drinkers.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: gkunos@mail.nih.gov
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An ongoing process: A qualitative study of how the alcohol-dependent free themselves of addiction through progressive abstinence

Most people being treated for alcoholism are unable to successfully quit drinking within their treatment programs. In few cases do we know the full picture of how abstinence is achieved in Taiwan.We tracked processes of abstinence in alcohol-dependency disorders, based on study evidence and results. This research explores the process of recovery from the viewpoint of the alcohol-dependent.

We found that the abstinence process is an ongoing process, in which the alcohol-dependent free themselves of addiction progressively. This process never ends or resolves in complete recovery. We have identified three stages in the struggle against alcoholism: the Indulgence, Ambivalence and Attempt (IAA) cycle, in which the sufferer is trapped in a cycle of attempting to give up and failing; the Turning Point, in which a Personal Nadir is reached, and the Ongoing Process of abstinence, in which a constant effort is made to remain sober through willpower and with the help of support groups. We also discuss Influencing Factors that can derail abstinence attempts, pushing the sufferer back into the IAA cycle.

This study provides important points of reference for alcohol and drug service workers and community healthcare professionals, casting light on the abstinence process and providing a basis for intervention or rehabilitation services.

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A Comparison of Two Single-Item Screeners for Hazardous Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorder

There is increasing interest in and physician support for the use of single-item screeners for problem drinking.

In a representative sample of U.S. adults (n = 43,093) and within selected subgroups, past-year frequency of drinking 5+/4+ drinks and maximum drinks consumed on any day were evaluated as screeners for past-year alcohol dependence, any alcohol use disorder (AUD), and any AUD or hazardous drinking, using standard measures of screening performance. AUDs were defined according to DSM-IV criteria. Hazardous drinking was defined as consuming >14 drinks/wk or 5+ drinks on any day for men and >7 drinks/wk or 4+ drinks on any day for women.

Optimal cutpoints for both screeners varied across population subgroups, and these variations should be taken into account in order to maximize screening performance. At the optimal cutpoints for the total population, the sensitivity and specificity of maximum drinks were 89% and 82% for dependence at ≥5 drinks, 90% and 79% for any AUD at ≥4 drinks, and 90% and 96% for any AUD or hazardous drinking at ≥4 drinks. Comparable values of sensitivity and specificity for 5+/4+ frequency were 90% and 83% at ≥3 times a year, 87% and 82% at ≥once a year, and 88% and 100% at ≥once a year, respectively. Specificity was lower when only past-year drinkers were considered. The 5+/4+ frequency screener yielded fairly low sensitivity in predicting alcohol problems among the elderly and among Blacks. Results supported a past-year reference period for frequency of 5+/4+ drinks and substantiated gender- and age-specific thresholds for defining risk drinking.

Both of the single-item screeners performed nearly on a par with the AUDIT-C and have potential for use in primary and emergency care settings.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: ddawson@mail.nih.gov

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Variant in PNPLA3 is associated with alcoholic liver disease

Two genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have described associations of variants in PNPLA3 with nonalcoholic fatty liver and plasma liver enzyme levels.

We investigated the contributions of these variants to liver disease in Mestizo subjects with a history of alcohol dependence.

We found that rs738409 in PNPLA3 is strongly associated with alcoholic liver disease and clinically evident alcoholic cirrhosis .

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Request Reprint E-Mail: david_hinds@perlegen.com.
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