Why do some Irish drink so much? Family, historical and regional effects on students’ alcohol consumption and subjective normative thresholds

This paper studies determinants of drinking behavior and formation of subjective thresholds of acceptable drinking behavior using a sample of students in a major Irish University.

We find evidence of strong associations between amounts of alcohol students consume and drinking of their fathers and older siblings. In contrast, we find little evidence of impacts of other non-drinking aspects of family background on students’ drinking. Parental and older sibling drinking appears to affect subjective attitudes of students towards what constitutes problem drinking behavior.

We investigated historical origins of drinking behavior including the role of the Church, English cultural influences, the importance of the brewery and distilling industry, and the influence of weather.

We find relatively strong influences of the Catholic Church and English colonial settlement patterns on Irish drinking patterns but little influence of Irish weather. Historical licensing restrictions on the number of pubs and off-license establishments also appear to matter.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:   Liam.Delaney@ucd.ie

Intrinsic Properties of Larval Zebrafish Neurons in Ethanol

The behavioral effects of ethanol have been studied in multiple animal models including zebrafish. Locomotion of zebrafish larvae is resistant to high concentrations of ethanol in bath solution. This resistance has been attributed to a lower systemic concentration of ethanol in zebrafish when compared with bath solution, although the mechanism to maintain such a steep gradient is unclear.

Here we examined whether the intrinsic properties of neurons play roles in this resistance. In order to minimize the contribution of metabolism and diffusional barriers, larvae were hemisected and the anterior half immersed in a range of ethanol concentrations thereby ensuring the free access of bath ethanol to the brain. The response to vibrational stimuli of three types of reticulospinal neurons: Mauthner neurons, vestibulospinal neurons, and MiD3 neurons were examined using an intracellular calcium indicator.

The intracellular [Ca²⁺] response in MiD3 neurons decreased in 100 mM ethanol, while Mauthner neurons and vestibulospinal neurons required >300 mM ethanol to elicit similar effects. The ethanol effect in Mauthner neurons was reversible following removal of ethanol. Interestingly, activities of MiD3 neurons displayed spontaneous recovery in 300 mM ethanol, suggestive of acute tolerance.

Finally, we examined with mechanical vibration the startle response of free-swimming larvae in 300 mM ethanol. Ethanol treatment abolished long latency startle responses, suggesting a functional change in neural processing.
These data support the hypothesis that individual neurons in larval zebrafish brains have distinct patterns of response to ethanol dictated by specific molecular targets.


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Youth drinking cultures, social networking and alcohol marketing: implications for public health

 

Alcohol consumption and heavy drinking in young adults have been key concerns for public health.
Alcohol marketing is an important factor in contributing to negative outcomes. The rapid growth in the use of new social networking technologies raises new issues regarding alcohol marketing, as well as potential impacts on alcohol cultures more generally.

Young people, for example, routinely tell and re-tell drinking stories online, share images depicting drinking, and are exposed to often intensive and novel forms of alcohol marketing.

In this paper, we critically review the research literature on (a) social networking technologies and alcohol marketing and (b) online alcohol content on social networks, and then consider implications for public health knowledge and research.

We conclude that social networking systems are positive and pleasurable for young people, but are likely to contribute to pro-alcohol environments and encourage drinking. However, currently research is preliminary and descriptive, and we need innovative methods and detailed in-depth studies to gain greater understanding of young people’s mediated drinking cultures and commercial alcohol promotion.


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Strategies to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harms and Costs in Canada:A Comparison of Provincial Policies

Ontario scored highly on controlling the availability of alcohol, on strategies to deter drinking and driving and policies that regulate alcohol advertising and marketing practices, which were areas other provinces needed to improve upon.

Ontario also received high scores for adjusting alcohol prices based on alcohol content, for its restriction of certain types of ads and for having a clearly identified advertising enforcement authority and complaint process.

Other highlights from the study:

• New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the only provinces to place limitations on the quantity of alcohol advertisements.
• Over 60 per cent of alcohol retailers in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. are government owned, resulting in high scores for their control system.
• All provinces scored well with legal drinking age by having legislation in place that prohibits the sale and purchase of alcohol to a minor and having enforcement of the minimum legal drinking age in all types of alcohol outlets (liquor stores, bars, restaurants, etc).
• British Columbia and Ontario received top scores for identifying physician screening for problem alcohol use as a priority area while other provinces had little to no activity in this area.
• British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and P.E.I have province-wide, mandatory server training programs for staff at all public establishments. Ontario and Manitoba increased their score by also requiring staff at licensed events to be trained in responsible alcohol service.
• Alberta and Nova Scotia had high scores for their provincial alcohol strategies, being the only provinces to create alcohol-focused provincial strategies.

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The Novel Gene tank, a Tumor Suppressor Homolog, Regulates Ethanol Sensitivity in Drosophila

In both mammalian and insect models of ethanol intoxication, high doses of ethanol induce motor impairment and eventually sedation. Sensitivity to the sedative effects of ethanol is inversely correlated with risk for alcoholism. However, the genes regulating ethanol sensitivity are largely unknown.

Based on a previous genetic screen in Drosophila for ethanol sedation mutants, we identified a novel gene, tank (CG15626), the homolog of the mammalian tumor suppressor EI24/PIG8, which has a strong role in regulating ethanol sedation sensitivity.

Genetic and behavioral analyses revealed that tank acts in the adult nervous system to promote ethanol sensitivity. We localized the function of tank in regulating ethanol sensitivity to neurons within the pars intercerebralis that have not been implicated previously in ethanol responses.

We show that acutely manipulating the activity of all tank-expressing neurons, or of pars intercerebralis neurons in particular, alters ethanol sensitivity in a sexually dimorphic manner, since neuronal activation enhanced ethanol sedation in males, but not females.

Finally, we provide anatomical evidence that tank-expressing neurons form likely synaptic connections with neurons expressing the neural sex determination factor fruitless (fru), which have been implicated recently in the regulation of ethanol sensitivity. We suggest that a functional interaction with fru neurons, many of which are sexually dimorphic, may account for the sex-specific effect induced by activating tank neurons.

Overall, we have characterized a novel gene and corresponding set of neurons that regulate ethanol sensitivity in Drosophila.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:     ad3030@columbia.edu.

No announcement on England's minimum pricing decision as Scotland gets legal go ahead

Rumours that the Queen's speech would confirm whether Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) had been scrapped were proven false this week. However when later asked in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister David Cameron promised to deliver a 'package of measures' to deal with cheap alcohol:

"On minimum pricing for alcohol, it is important that we take action to deal with deeply discounted alcohol, with cans of lager sometimes selling for as little as 25p in supermarkets. We will be bringing forward a package of measures, and it is important that we get this right."

Recently Home Office minister Jeremy Brown had said the Government was yet to confirm its decision on MUP and were listening to "powerfull arguments on both sides" following the consultation.   > > > >  Read More

Phenolic Acid Intake, Delivered Via Moderate Champagne Wine Consumption, Improves Spatial Working Memory Via the Modulation of Hippocampal and Cortical Protein Expression/Activation

While much data exist for the effects of flavonoid-rich foods on spatial memory in rodents, there are no such data for foods/beverages predominantly containing hydroxycinnamates and phenolic acids. To address this, we investigated the effects of moderate Champagne wine intake, which is rich in these components, on spatial memory and related mechanisms relative to the alcohol- and energy-matched controls.

In contrast to the isocaloric and alcohol-matched controls, supplementation with Champagne wine (1.78 ml/kg BW, alcohol 12.5% vol.) for 6 weeks led to an improvement in spatial working memory in aged rodents. Targeted protein arrays indicated that these behavioral effects were paralleled by the differential expression of a number of hippocampal and cortical proteins (relative to the isocaloric control group), including those involved in signal transduction, neuroplasticity, apoptosis, and cell cycle regulation. Western immunoblotting confirmed the differential modulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, cAMP response-element-binding protein (CREB), p38, dystrophin, 2′,3′-cyclic-nucleotide 3′-phosphodiesterase, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and Bcl-xL in response to Champagne supplementation compared to the control drink, and the modulation of mTOR, Bcl-xL, and CREB in response to alcohol supplementation.

Our data suggest that smaller phenolics such as gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, tyrosol, caftaric acid, and caffeic acid, in addition to flavonoids, are capable of exerting improvements in spatial memory via the modulation in hippocampal signaling and protein expression.

Changes in spatial working memory induced by the Champagne supplementation are linked to the effects of absorbed phenolics on cytoskeletal proteins, neurotrophin expression, and the effects of alcohol on the regulation of apoptotic events in the hippocampus and cortex.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:   j.p.e.spencer@reading.ac.uk

The ‘other’ in patterns of drinking: A qualitative study of attitudes towards alcohol use among professional, managerial and clerical workers

Recent evidence shows that workers in white collar roles consume more alcohol than other groups within the workforce, yet little is known about their views of drinking.

Focus groups were conducted in five workplaces to examine the views of white collar workers regarding the effect of alcohol use on personal and professional lives, drinking patterns and perceived norms. Analysis followed the method of constant comparison.

 

Alcohol use was part of everyday routine. Acceptable consumption and ‘excess’ were framed around personal experience and ability to function rather than quantity of alcohol consumed. Public health messages or the risk of adverse health consequences had little impact on views of alcohol consumption or reported drinking.

 

When developing public health alcohol interventions it is important to consider the views of differing groups within the population. Our sample considered public health messages to be of no relevance to them, rather they reinforced perceptions that their own alcohol use was controlled and acceptable. To develop effective public health alcohol interventions the views of this group should be examined in

more detail.


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The Impact of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Addiction Treatment

 

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are conditions caused by prenatal alcohol exposure in amounts sufficient to cause permanent deficits in brain functioning. Extent of damage largely depends on timing, dose, frequency, and pattern of exposure. Timing is especially important because prenatal alcohol exposure during critical periods of gestation can affect brain development in ways that produce varying patterns of neurocognitive deficits and associated adaptive impairments.

This article describes some of the more serious neurophysiological and neuropsychological sequelae of prenatal alcohol exposure that contribute to increased risk for substance abuse problems among people with an FASD. We discuss the unique interface between pharmacological treatment and FASD, noting that failure to consider the possibility of FASD in treatment planning may result in treatment failure and/or relapse.

Finally, we present a clinical case example and recommend service accommodations to address some of the impairments in FASD that limit substance abuse treatment success.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:    granttm@u.washington.edu

Assessment of Alcohol Withdrawal in Native American Patients Utilizing the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol Revised Scale

 

The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol Revised (CIWA-Ar) is a commonly used scale for assessing the severity of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in the acute setting. Despite validation of this scale in the general population, the effect of ethnicity on CIWA-Ar scoring does not appear in the literature. The purpose of our study was to investigate the validity of the CIWA-Ar scale among Native American patients evaluated for acute alcohol detoxification.

 A case series of all patients seen for alcohol withdrawal at an Acute Drug and Alcohol Detoxification facility was conducted from June 1, 2011, until April 1, 2012. The CIWA-Ar scores were recorded by trained nursing staff on presentation to Triage Department and every 2 hours thereafter. At our institution, a score of 10 or greater indicates the need for inpatient hospital admission and treatment. Ethnicity was self-reported. Age, sex, blood alcohol concentration, blood pressure, and pulse were recorded on presentation and vital signs repeated every 2 hours. Patients were excluded from the study if other drug use was noted by history or initial urine drug screen. A multivariate logistic regression model was utilized to identify statistically significant variables associated with admission to the inpatient unit and treatment. The relationship of CIWA-Ar scores and ethnicity was compared using analysis of variance.

A total of 115 whites, 45 Hispanics, and 47 Native Americans were included in the analysis. Native Americans had consistently lower CIWA-Ar scores at 0, 2, 4, and 6 hours than the other 2 ethnic groups (P = 0.002). In addition, Native Americans were admitted to the hospital less often than the other 2 groups for withdrawal (P < 0.001).

The CIWA-Ar scale may underestimate the severity of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in certain ethnic group such as Native Americans. Further prospective studies should be undertaken to determine the validity of the CIWA-Ar scale in assessing alcohol withdrawal across different ethnic populations.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:   
drappapo@email.arizona.edu

Critique 111: Association of alcohol consumption with a measure of osteoporosis in elderly women — 7 May 2013

The density of bones, measured as bone mineral density (BMD), is strongly related to osteoporosis. Elderly women with osteoporosis, in particular, are at increased risk of fractures of the hip, arm, and spine; such fractures often relate to severe disability.

With data on alcohol collected as part of a clinical trial on the prevention of osteoporosis, investigators in Finland have related alcohol consumption to changes over three years in BMD. After those excluded due to incomplete data, data on 300 women were available for analysis. The majority of women were abstainers or consumed little alcohol. Nevertheless, the results support much earlier research: regular, moderate drinking is associated with higher levels of BMD (i.e., lower risk of osteoporotic fractures) than is abstinence.   > > > >  Read More

Improving the Quality of Childhood in Europe 2013, Volume 4 Chapter 1; Preventing Alcohol Use Disorders Among Children and Adolescents in the EU

The European Union is the region with the highest alcohol consumption in the world accompanied by high levels of alcohol use disorders among adolescents and adults. Alcohol

policies and legal drinking ages vary and have been based on the history, culture, social conditions, economic interests and taxation policies of each country. However this is
increasingly at odds with a new generation of medical research.

This paper will present empirical evidence clearly pointing to basic changes that need to be made in alcohol policy across the EU in order to prevent further alcohol use disorders and the resultant high levels of morbidity and mortality.


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A Critical Systematic Review of Alcohol-Related Outcome Expectancies

 

 

To assess the validity of the research into alcohol-related outcome expectancies a systematic review of 80 articles published between 1970 and 2013 was conducted.

 

Participant gender, age, and contextual influences are highlighted as possible causes of the observed variations in research findings.

 

There is a need for fuller consideration of the influences of demographics and environmental and social contexts on research findings. It is recommended that alcohol intake measures should be standardized to a greater degree in future research.

 

Contextual influences on expectancies also require extensive future investigation to increase the validity of research and improve alcohol-related interventions.

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Request Reprint E-Mail:   rebeccalouisemonk@gmail.com

Response inhibition toward alcohol-related cues using an alcohol go/no-go task in problem and non-problem drinkers

 

Previous results suggested that alcohol abusers and alcohol dependent patients show cognitive biases in the treatment of alcohol-related cues, especially approach and inhibition deficit biases. Response inhibition was often tested using the go/no-go task in which the participants had to respond as quickly as possible to a class of stimuli (go stimuli) while refraining from responding to another class of stimuli (no-go stimuli). Previous studies assessing specific response inhibition deficits in the process of alcohol-related cues obtained conflicting results. The aims of the present study were to clarify response inhibition for alcohol cues in problem and non-problem drinkers, male and female and to test the effect of alcohol brand logos.

Thirty-six non-problem drinker and thirty-five problem drinker undergraduate students completed a modified alcohol go/no-go task using alcohol and neutral object pictures, with or without brand logos, as stimuli. An additional control experiment was carried out to check whether participants’ awareness that the study tested their response to alcohol might have biased the results.

All participants, whether problem or non-problem drinkers, showed significantly shorter mean reaction times when alcohol pictures are used as go stimuli and significantly higher percentages of commission errors (false alarms) when alcohol pictures are used as no-go stimuli. Identical effects were obtained in the control experiment when participants were unaware that the study focused on alcohol. Shorter reaction times to alcohol-related cues were observed in problem drinkers relative to non-problem drinkers but only in the experimental condition with no brand logos on alcohol pictures. The addition of alcohol brand logos further reduced reaction times in light drinkers, thereby masking group differences. There was a tendency for female problem drinkers to show higher rates of false alarms for alcohol no-go stimuli, although this effect was only very close to statistical significance.

All participants exhibited a cognitive bias in the treatment of alcohol cues that might be related to the positive emotional value of such alcohol-related cues. Stronger cognitive biases in the treatment of alcohol cues were observed in problem drinkers, although differences between problem and non-problem drinkers were relatively small-scale and required specific experimental parameters to be uncovered. In particular, the presence of alcohol brand logos on visual alcohol cues was an important experimental parameter that significantly affected behavioral responses to such stimuli.

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Request Reprint E-Mail:      equertemont@ulg.ac.be

Measurement invariance of DSM-IV alcohol, marijuana and cocaine dependence between community-sampled and clinically overselected studies

 

To examine whether DSM-IV symptoms of substance dependence are psychometrically equivalent between existing community-sampled and clinically overselected studies.

 

A total of 2476 adult twins born in Minnesota and 4121 unrelated adult participants from a case–control study of alcohol dependence.

 

Life-time DSM-IV alcohol, marijuana and cocaine dependence symptoms and ever use of each substance.

 

We fitted a hierarchical model to the data, in which ever use and dependence symptoms for each substance were indicators of alcohol, marijuana or cocaine dependence which were, in turn, indicators of a multi-substance dependence factor. We then tested the model for measurement invariance across participant groups, defined by study source and participant sex.

 

The hierarchical model fitted well among males and females within each sample [comparative fit index (CFI) > 0.96, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) > 0.95 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) < 0.04 for all], and a multi-group model demonstrated that model parameters were equivalent across sample- and sex-defined groups (ΔCFI = 0.002 between constrained and unconstrained models). Differences between groups in symptom endorsement rates could be expressed solely as mean differences in the multi-substance dependence factor.

 

Life-time substance dependence symptoms fitted a dimensional model well. Although clinically overselected participants endorsed more dependence symptoms, on average, than community-sampled participants, the pattern of symptom endorsement was similar across groups. From a measurement perspective, DSM-IV criteria are equally appropriate for describing substance dependence across different sampling methods.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:    jaime.derringer@colorado.edu

DSM-5—The Future Arrived

 

 

The next revision of psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)¹ will be published in May 2013 and is the first revision of this psychiatric nomenclature in almost 2 decades. DSM-5 involved an international, multidisciplinary team of more than 400 individuals who volunteered vast amounts of their time throughout this 6-year official process, as well as many contributions from numerous international conferences that were held during the last decade.

 

Readers will recognize a few notable differences from DSM-IV. One distinction is DSM-5 's emphasis on numerous issues important to diagnosis and clinical care, including the influence of development, gender, and culture on the presentation of disorders.² This is present in select diagnostic criteria, in text, or in both, which include variations of symptom presentations, risk factors, course, comorbidities, or other clinically useful information that might vary depending on a patient's gender, age, or cultural background. Another distinct feature is ensuring greater harmony between this North American classification system and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system. For example, the chapter structure of DSM now begins with those in which neurodevelopmental influences produce early-onset disorders in childhood. This restructuring brings greater alignment of DSM-5 to the structuring of disorders in the future ICD-11 but also reflects the manual's developmental emphasis, rather than the previous edition's sequestering of all childhood disorders to a separate chapter. A similar approach to harmonizing with the ICD was taken to promote a more conceptual relationship between DSM-5 and classifications in other areas of medicine, such as the classification of sleep disorders.  > > > >  Read More

Moderate alcohol use and health: A consensus paper

The aim of this consensus paper is to review the available evidence on the association between moderate alcohol use, health and disease and to provide a working document to the scientific and health professional communities.

In healthy adults and in the elderly, spontaneous consumption of alcoholic beverages within 30 g ethanol/d for men and 15 g/d for women is to be considered acceptable and do not deserve intervention by the primary care physician or the health professional in charge. Patients with increased risk for specific diseases, for example, women with familiar history of breast cancer, or subjects with familiar history of early cardiovascular disease, or cardiovascular patients should discuss with their physician their drinking habits. No abstainer should be advised to drink for health reasons. Alcohol use must be discouraged in specific physiological or personal situations or in selected age classes (children and adolescents, pregnant and lactating women and recovering alcoholics). Moreover, the possible interactions between alcohol and acute or chronic drug use must be discussed with the primary care physician.

The choice to consume alcohol should be based on individual considerations, taking into account the influence on health and diet, the risk of alcoholism and abuse, the effect on behaviour and other factors that may vary with age and lifestyle. Moderation in drinking and development of an associated lifestyle culture should be fostered.


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Request Reprint E-Mail:    poli@nutrition-foundation.it

Dr. Bankole Johnson to deliver 5th Annual Jack Mendelson Honorary Lecture at National Institutes of Health

What: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, announces that Bankole Johnson, D.Sc., M.D., Ph.D., will deliver the 5th Annual Jack Mendelson Honorary Lecture. Dr. Johnson is a world-famous pioneer in the development of medications to treat alcohol abuse. The title of his lecture will be “Personalizing the Treatment of Alcoholism.”

Who: Dr. Johnson is the Alumni Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is also a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Medicine. In addition, he is the Principal Investigator on several National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research studies. A practicing physician, psychiatrist and researcher for more than 25 years, Dr. Johnson has transformed our understanding of how abnormalities in the brain can promote addiction. These investigations also led him to discover drugs effective at alleviating alcohol addiction.

When: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 1:30 p.m. EDT

Where: Lipsett Amphitheater, NIH Building 10, Bethesda, Md.
> > > >  Read More

Alcohol News - 18/2013

 

Medical Daily (EU) - EU Report Warns Parents Against Giving Children Alcohol

A report commissioned by the EU cites research showing the long-term health effects of even moderate drinking among children.Read more

Göteborg Daily (Sweden) - University drinking culture criticised

Parties in elevators, bathrooms and computer rooms. Local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten published a long reportage on the weekend about the drinking culture at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. However, the students themselves don’t think there is a problem.

Read more

Sverige Radio (Sweden) - Police boosting presence near Systembolaget

Police are boosting their presence around the country's state-run alcohol stores on Tuesday to stop minors from trying to get alcohol as Swedes prepare for Walpurgis night, reports Swedish Radio news.

Read more

Alcohol and Alcoholism (Estonia) - Acute Alcohol Intoxication Characteristics in Children

The level of consciousness is the leading sign in the clinical evaluation of children with AAI and correlates well with SAC. The severity of AAI judged by clinical assessment matched better with AAI severity stages determined by SAC than by BAC.

Read more

Telegraph.co.uk (UK) - MPs call for cheaper alcohol in Commons

Despite prices for alcohol being kept cheaper than a nearby Wetherspoons pub at the four Palace of Westminster bars, MPs have suggested prices should be linked to pubs outside of central London to make them cheaper.

Read more

EurActiv (Scotland) - Scotland wins court case on minimum pricing of alcohol

The Scottish high court ruled on Friday (3 May) that the government has the right to introduce a legally binding minimum price on alcohol, the first of its kind in the EU. The spirits industry says it will appeal the court ruling.

Read more

Perth Now (Australia) - Rising alcohol levels giving wine lovers a headache

DO those New World Cabernets and Zinfandels make your head spin? Fed up with having to stop drinking after just one glass? Plenty of wine lovers around the world will have noticed their favourite tipples are getting stronger, and many of them are unhappy about the hangovers that come with increased alcohol levels.

Read more

Irish Times (Ireland) - Statutory code planned for drink sales

The Government is to introduce a statutory code requiring shopowners to separate the sale of alcohol from other goods in their premises.

Read more

Bizcommunity.com (South Africa) - Call for a ban on all alcohol for drivers

The government plans to ban drivers from consuming alcohol - not a drop will be allowed. This drastic move would mean motorists can no longer enjoy a glass of wine or a can of beer before driving.

Read more

Daily News Egypt (Egypt) - Teetotal tourism

Last week, the Les Rois hotel in Hurghada opened to the sound of breaking glass as bottles of alcohol were smashed in celebration.

Read more

Herald Scotland - Why alcohol is the ugliest drug of all

Drugs come in all shapes, sizes, doses, containers and plastic zip-up bags, but I don’t think anyone would disagree that the ugliest of them all, as far as effects and consequences go, is, by far, alcohol.

Read more

Mirror.co.uk (UK) - Nearly a quarter of soldiers 'drinking dangerously high levels of alcohol'

Nearly a quarter of all soldiers are drinking dangerously high levels of alcohol, a report shows. And the heavy boozing in the ranks puts lives at risk and threatens the success of combat operations.

Read more

Casper Star-Tribune Online (USA) - Study: Alcohol tops tobacco, drug abuse in economic cost to Wyoming

Read more

UCSD Medical Center - Study Finds Women Who Drink Alcohol Before Pregnancy Less Likely To Take Multivitamins

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego Department of Pediatrics and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, a research affiliate of UC San Diego School of Medicine, have found a link between multivitamin use and alcohol consumption before pregnancy, uncovering a need for education about the importance of vitamin supplementation, particularly among women who drink alcohol during their childbearing years.

Read more

EurActiv (EU) - Eurocare strongly supports Court's judgment on Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol in Scotland

The Court of Session, Scotland's supreme civil court, has ruled today in favour of the legality of the Scottish government's plans to introduce minimum pricing per unit of alcohol.

Read more

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Half of Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions among Veterans Aged 21 to 39 Involve Alcohol as the Primary Substance of Abuse

Men and women in the U.S. military often face challenging experiences during their service, including combat exposure, multiple deployments, physical injury, and psychological trauma. Some turn to substance use as a way to cope with these experiences. Unhealthy substance use behaviors can persist after active duty military service and can lead to the need for substance abuse treatment among veterans.

The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) is a database of substance abuse treatment admissions, primarily at publicly funded treatment facilities. TEDS excludes admissions to Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities; therefore, the veteran admissions in TEDS represent veterans who chose to seek substance abuse treatment in a non-VA facility. According to TEDS data for 2010, there were 17,641 admissions of veterans aged 21 to 39, an age group that includes veterans with relatively recent service. Veteran admissions were more likely than nonveteran admissions to report alcohol as their primary substance of abuse (50.7 vs. 34.4 percent) and were less likely to report heroin as the primary substance of abuse (9.0 vs. 16.8 percent; Figure). The prominence of alcohol treatment admissions among veterans with relatively recent service suggests that alcohol in particular is an important target for policy and programs related to substance use and abuse among military personnel and veterans.   > > > >   Read More

Neonatal alcohol exposure impairs contextual fear conditioning in juvenile rats by disrupting cholinergic function

The context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a variant of context fear conditioning in which context preexposure facilitates conditioning to immediate foot shock. Learning about context (preexposure), associating the context with shock (training), and expression of context fear (testing) occur in successive phases of the protocol. The CPFE develops postnatally, depends on hippocampal NMDA receptor function, and is highly sensitive to neonatal alcohol exposure during the weanling/juvenile period of development 0075 and 0080.

The present study examined some behavioral and pharmacological mechanisms through which neonatal alcohol impairs the CPFE in juvenile rats.

We found that a 5-min context preexposure plus five 1-min preexposures greatly increases the levels of conditioned freezing compared to a single 5-min exposure or to five 1-min preexposures (Experiment 1). Increasing conditioned freezing with the multiple- exposure CPFE protocol does not alter the neonatal alcohol-induced deficit in the CPFE (Experiment 2). Finally, systemic administration of 0.01 mg/kg physostigmine prior to all three phases of the CPFE reverses this ethanol-induced deficit.

These findings show that impairment of the CPFE by neonatal alcohol is not confined to behavioral protocols that produce low levels of conditioned freezing. They also support recent evidence that this impairment reflects a disruption of cholinergic function [18].


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Request Reprint E-Mail:  stanton@udel.edu

AAWE WORKING PAPER No. 135: ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION, DETERRENCE AND CRIME

This paper investigates the relationship between alcohol consumption, deterrence, and crime for New York City. We examine high-frequency time-series data from 1983 to 2001 for one specific location to examine the impacts of variations in both alcohol consumption and deterrence on seven “index” crimes.

We tackle the endogeneity of arrests and the police force by exploiting the temporal independence of crime and

deterrence in these high-frequency data, and we address the endogeneity of alcohol by using instrumental variables where alcohol sales are instrumented with city and state alcohol taxes and minimum drinking age.

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We find that alcohol consumption is positively related to assault, rape, and larceny crimes but not murder, robbery, burglary, or motor vehicle theft. We find strong deterrence for all crimes except assault and rape.  Generally, deterrence effects are stronger than alcohol effects.

 

 

 

Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: common molecular substrates of nicotine and alcohol dependence

Alcohol and nicotine are often co-abused. As many as 80–95% of alcoholics are also smokers, suggesting that ethanol and nicotine, the primary addictive component of tobacco smoke, may functionally interact in the central nervous system and/or share a common mechanism of action.

While nicotine initiates dependence by binding to and activating neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), ligand-gated cation channels normally activated by endogenous acetylcholine (ACh), ethanol is much less specific with the ability to modulate multiple gene products including those encoding voltage-gated ion channels, and excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors.

However, emerging data indicate that ethanol interacts with nAChRs, both directly and indirectly, in the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic (DAergic) reward circuitry to affect brain reward systems. Like nicotine, ethanol activates DAergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) which project to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Blockade of VTA nAChRs reduces ethanol-mediated activation of DAergic neurons, NAc DA release, consumption, and operant responding for ethanol in rodents.

Thus, ethanol may increase ACh release into the VTA driving activation of DAergic neurons through nAChRs. In addition, ethanol potentiates distinct nAChR subtype responses to ACh and nicotine in vitro and in DAergic neurons.

The smoking cessation therapeutic and nAChR partial agonist, varenicline, reduces alcohol consumption in heavy drinking smokers and rodent models of alcohol consumption.

Finally, single nucleotide polymorphisms in nAChR subunit genes are associated with alcohol dependence phenotypes and smoking behaviors in human populations.

Together, results from pre-clinical, clinical, and genetic studies indicate that nAChRs may have an inherent role in the abusive properties of ethanol, as well as in nicotine and alcohol co-dependence.


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