Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Legal Ages for Purchase and Consumption of Alcohol and Heavy Drinking Among College Students in Canada, Europe, and the United States
Substance Abuse, Volume 30, Issue 3 July 2009 , pages 248 - 252

Heavy drinking and associated negative consequences remain a serious problem among college students.

In a secondary analysis of data from two published study, the authors examine the correlation between minimum legal age to purchase and/or consume alcohol and rates of heavy drinking among college students in 22 countries.

Examination of this evidence does not support the conclusion that a lower minimum legal age for purchase and/or consumption of alcoholic beverages is a protective factor for decreasing heavy drinking among college students.


Request Reprint E-Mail: aek3a@virginia.edu

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Rapid Large-Scale Privatization and Death Rates in Ex-communist Countries: An Analysis of Stress-Related and Health System Mechanisms
International Journal of Health Services Volume 39, Number 3 / 2009 Pages: 461 - 489

During the transition to capitalism, the postcommunist countries have experienced devastating rises in mortality, although there has been considerable variation within and between countries and regions. Much of this population-level variation remains unexplained, but alcohol and psychological stress are found to be major proximal causes of rising mortality rates.

The authors show that implementation of neoliberal-inspired rapid, large-scale privatization programs ("mass privatization") was associated with significant declines in life expectancy, as well as with greater alcohol-related deaths, heart disease, and suicide rates.

The authors interpret these findings as evidence that rapid organizational reform created excess psychosocial stress, which, consistent with the public health literature, increases risk of death at the individual level. However, they also find that rapid privatization modestly contributed to a decline in health care resources, such as the number of physicians, dentists, and hospital beds per capita, although there is weak evidence that these reductions in health system capacity explain substantial differences in mortality at the country level.


Request Reprint E-Mail: David.Stuckler@Aya.Yale.Edu
Mass Privatization and the Postcommunist Mortality Crisis (PDF)
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Lifetime consumption of alcoholic beverages and risk of 13 types of cancer in men: Results from a case–control study in Montreal
Cancer Detection and Prevention Volume 32, Issues 5-6, 2009, Pages 352-362

The aim of the study was to investigate the association between lifetime consumption of alcoholic beverages and cancer risk.

For several cancers (oesophagus, stomach, colon, liver, pancreas, lung, prostate) there was evidence of increased risk among alcohol consumers compared with abstainers and occasional drinkers. For most sites, it was beer and to a lesser extent spirits consumption that drove the excess risks.

Our results support the hypothesis that moderate and high alcohol intake levels over the lifetime might increase cancer risk at several sites.


Request Reprint E-Mail: andrea.benedetti@mcgill.ca

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The impact of drought on mental health and alcohol use
Ben Edwards, Matthew Gray and Boyd Hunter
Australian Institute of Family Studies and Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University

The most recent drought has been one of the most severe on record with large parts of southern and eastern Australia experiencing dry conditions since 1996. There have been few large studies that examine the impact of drought upon the mental health and alcohol use of people living in regional and rural areas of Australia or other developed countries.

We use the Rural and Regional Families study, a cross-sectional study of 8,000 people from rural and regional areas of Australia that interviewed people in areas that were in severe drought, drought, below average and above average rainfall. We compare working age people who were in drought (as defined by rainfall and also self report) to those that were not in drought. We use regression models to adjust for demographics that would not be expected to be affected by drought to estimate the impact of drought on the mental health problems, mental health, anti-depressant use for stress and alcohol use.

One of the primary mechanisms by which mental health and alcohol abuse problems arise during and after a drought is through the financial impact associated with decreased agricultural productivity in rural areas. While the drought of 2002-2007 had significant negative economic impact on the Australian economy it had particularly large effects on financial hardship in regions affected - especially among farmers (Edwards et al. 2009). We discuss our findings of the impact of drought on mental health and alcohol use in this context and the possible policy implications.

Request Conference Paper E-Mail: Ben.Edwards@aifs.gov.au
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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic basis for overcoming acetaldehyde-induced adverse reaction in Asian alcoholics, heterozygous for the variant ALDH2*2 gene allele
Pharmacogenetics and Genomics: POST AUTHOR CORRECTIONS, 6 July 2009

These results indicate that acetaldehyde, rather than ethanol or acetate, is primarily responsible for the observed alcohol sensitivity reactions in heterozygotic alcoholics and suggest that physiological tolerance and/or innate low sensitivity may play a crucial role in overcoming the deterring response. A potential pharmacogenetic classification of acetaldehydism and alcoholism for alcoholics carrying the different ALDH2 genotypes is proposed.

Request Reprint E-Mail: yinsj@ndmc.idv.tw
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Alcohol expectancy priming and drinking behavior: The role of compatibility between prime and expectancy content.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 329-333.

According to information-processing models of alcohol use, alcohol expectancies constitute representations in long-term memory that may be activated in the presence of drinking-related cues, thereby influencing alcohol consumption. A fundamental implication of this approach is that primed expectancies should affect drinking only for those individuals who possess the specific expectancies primed.

To test this notion, in the present study, participants were initially assessed on 3 distinct domains of positive alcohol expectancies. Approximately 1 week later, they completed an ad libitum drinking study during which only a single expectancy domain (sociability) was primed in the experimental condition.

Consistent with predictions, following exposure to sociability primes but not control primes, individuals with stronger expectancies that alcohol would enhance sociability uniquely showed increased placebo consumption of nonalcoholic beer.

These results, which demonstrate the moderating role of compatibility between the specific content of primes and that of underlying expectancies, offer new, direct support for memory network-based models of drinking behavior.


Request Reprint E-Mail: rfriedman@albany.edu

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Alcohol outcome expectancies as socially shared and socialized beliefs.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 248-259.

Alcohol expectancies are important predictors of alcohol involvement in both adolescents and adults, yet little research has examined the social origins and transmission of these beliefs. This paper examined alcohol outcome expectancies collected in a cohort-sequential longitudinal study of 452 families with children followed over seven waves.

Children increased their adoption of both the positive and negative consensual alcohol expectancies. Unconditional latent growth modeling showed that piece-wise growth models with a transition at age 12 fit the data best. Both the positive and negative consensual expectancies were adopted at a faster rate between ages 8.5 and 11.5 than between ages 12 and 13.5. For negative expectancies, there was no further growth between ages 12 and 13.5.

Taken together, these findings support the conceptualization of alcohol outcome expectancies as socially shared and transmitted beliefs.


Request Reprint E-Mail: donovanje@upmc.edu

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Acute alcohol tolerance on subjective intoxication and simulated driving performance in binge drinkers
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 238-247.

High rates of binge drinking and alcohol-related problems, including drinking and driving, occur among college students. Underlying reasons for the heightened impaired driving rates in this demographic group are not known. The authors hypothesized that acute tolerance to the interoceptive cues of intoxication may contribute to these maladaptive decisions to drive in binge drinkers.

Compared with placebo, alcohol increased ratings of intoxication and impaired multiple aspects of simulated driving performance in both binge and non-binge drinkers. During the descending phase of the blood alcohol curve, binge drinkers showed acute tolerance to alcohol’s effect on subjective intoxication, and this effect was accompanied by an increased rating of willingness to drive. By contrast, non-binge drinkers showed no acute tolerance.


Request Reprint E-Mail: marczinskc1@nku.edu

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Coping-anxiety and coping-depression motives predict different daily mood-drinking relationships.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 226-237.

Individuals with different drinking motives show distinctive patterns of alcohol use and problems. Drinking to cope, or endorsing strong coping motives for alcohol use, has been shown to be particularly hazardous. It is important to determine the unique triggers associated with coping drinking.

Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that, as hypothesized, stronger initial coping-depression motives predicted higher daily depressed mood-alcohol consumption slopes. Also consistent with expectation, stronger initial coping-anxiety motives predicted higher anxious mood-alcohol consumption slopes.

We discuss how this identification of the unique mood triggers associated with each type of coping drinking motive can provide the basis for targeted interventions.


Request Reprint E-Mail: valerie.grant@dal.ca
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Body mass index and alcohol consumption: Family history of alcoholism as a moderator.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 216-225.

Recent research suggests that excess food consumption may be conceptualized as an addictive behavior. Much of the evidence comes from neurobiological similarities between drug and food consumption. In addition, an inverse relation between alcohol consumption and body mass index (BMI) has been observed. Previous research has hypothesized that this inverse relation is attributable to competition between food and alcohol for similar neurotransmitter receptors.

The current study explored this neurobiological hypothesis further by examining the influence of an indicator of biological risk associated with alcohol problems (family history of alcoholism) on the relationship between alcohol and food intake.

An inverse relationship between alcohol consumption and BMI was demonstrated. An attenuation of family history effects on drinking behavior was evident for obese compared to nonobese participants.

The results suggest a neurobiological link between alcohol use and food consumption, consistent with theories characterizing excess food consumption as an addictive behavior


Request Reprint E-Mail: Ashley.Gearhardt@yale.edu

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Interpersonal problems and negative mood as predictors of within-day time to drinking.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 205-215.

Using data collected via handheld electronic diaries (EDs), we examined within-day associations between early-day negative moods and stress and subsequent time to drinking.

Whereas previous analyses of these data showed no associations between early-day negative moods and number of drinks consumed later in the day, here we found significant associations between negative moods and time to drinking. Associations involving negative moods, DTC, and hazard for drinking varied depending on time of day, and some mood effects were moderated by DTC.

These findings suggest that time to drinking may be more sensitive to the effects of acute negative mood states than is drinking quantity


Request Reprint E-Mail: mtodd@prev.org
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Gender differences in acute alcohol effects on self-regulation of arousal in response to emotional and alcohol-related picture cues.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 196-204.

Basic mechanisms through which men and women self-regulate arousal have received little attention in human experimental addiction research, although stress-response-dampening and craving theories suggest an important role of emotional arousal in motivating alcohol use. This study examined gender differences in the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on psychophysiological and self-reported arousal in response to emotionally negative, positive, and neutral, and alcohol-related, picture cues.

A statistically significant beverage group-by-gender interaction effect on psychophysiological, but not self-reported, arousal was found. The 0.1-Hz HRV responses to picture cues were suppressed by alcohol only in men. This gender-specific suppression pattern did not differ significantly across picture cue types. There were no significant gender differences in the placebo or control group.

Greater dampening of arousal by alcohol intoxication in men, compared with women, may contribute to men’s greater tendency to use alcohol to cope with stress.


Request Reprint E-Mail: udoto@umdnj.edu
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Readiness to change as a mediator of the effect of a brief motivational intervention on posttreatment alcohol-related consequences of injured emergency department hazardous drinkers.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Vol 23(2), 2009, 185-195.

Brief motivational interventions (BMIs) are usually effective for reducing alcohol use and consequences in primary care settings. We examined readiness to change drinking as a mediator of the effects of BMI on alcohol-related consequences.

Results are opposite of what would be expected from MI theory. An alternative explanation is offered as to why this finding occurred with this opportunistically recruited Emergency Department patient population.




Request Reprint E-Mail: LARStein@uri.edu

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High School Limits and College Drinking: Parental Influence on College Students’ Alcohol Use
The DRAM Vol. 5(6)

Research indicates that alcohol abuse is linked to negative consequences (e.g., drunk driving, physical altercations, etc.) among college students (Hingson, Heeren, Winter, & Wechsler, 2005). Although previous research has shown that parental influence diminishes when adolescents enter college, more recent research suggests that parents still have some influence (Galotti & Mark, 1994; Lehr, Dilorio, Dudley, & Lipana, 2000).

This week the DRAM reviews a study that examined the impact of parental permissibility of alcohol use during late high school on alcohol use and negative drinking consequences experienced among college students (Abar, Abar, & Turrisi, 2009).



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Predictive Value of Family History on Severity of Illness
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(7):738-747.

If family history is associated with clinical features that are thought to index seriousness of disorder, this could inform clinicians predicting patients' prognosis and researchers selecting cases for genetic studies. Although tests of associations between family history and clinical features are numerous for depression, such tests are relatively lacking for other disorders.

Associations between family history of a disorder and clinical features of that disorder in probands showed consistent direction of effects across depression, anxiety disorder, alcohol dependence, and drug dependence. For these disorder types, family history is useful for determining patients' clinical prognosis and for selecting cases for genetic studies.


Request Reprint E-Mail: b.milne@auckland.ac.nz

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The acute effect of low-dose alcohol on working memory during mental arithmetic: II. Changes of nonlinear and linear EEG-complexity in the theta band, heart rate and electrodermal activity
International Journal of Psychophysiology Volume 73, Issue 2, August 2009, Pages 138-142

Nonlinear and linear methods of EEG-complexity analysis and autonomic measures were used to characterize processes accompanying performance in a mental arithmetic task challenged by low (“social”) alcohol doses. It was expected that alcohol in such doses will dampen changes of task-related EEG-synchronization in the theta band, and those of heart rate and electrodermal activity (EDA).

Task-induced significant changes of the Omega-complexity and that of SL indicate increased synchrony in the theta band, probably corresponding to working memory effort. Both of these measures proved to be sensitive for the effect of low alcohol dose although these alcohol-elicited changes were not statistically significant. Task-induced heart rate and EDA increases were further intensified by alcohol probably indicating its activating effect on these autonomic measures in the dose range studied.


Request Reprint E-Mail: molnar@cogpsyphy.hu

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The acute effect of low-dose alcohol on working memory during mental arithmetic: I. Behavioral measures and EEG theta band spectral characteristics
International Journal of Psychophysiology Volume 73, Issue 2, August 2009, Pages 133-137

Task-related EEG changes were studied during the performance of a mental arithmetic task, as influenced by low alcohol dosages with the presumption that even “social” drinking may have detrimental effect.

No detrimental alcohol effect was seen on behavioral indices of task performance. However, the ethanol-induced moderate reduction of the task-related frontally dominant theta increase, probably corresponding to working memory demand, is a modest but clear electrophysiological sign of alcohol effect in this low-dose range.


Request Reprint E-Mail: molnar@cogpsyphy.hu

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Health profiles 2009 launched

fourth annual set of local Health Profiles

Advances in the nation's health are revealed in the fourth annual set of local Health Profiles.

Health profiles provides a snapshot of health for each local council in England using key health indicators, enabling comparison locally, regionally and over time. They are designed to help local councils and the NHS decide where to target resources and tackle health inequalities in their local area.


Key findings include:


  • Early deaths from heart disease, stroke and cancer are falling

  • More state school children spend at least two hours a week on sport or PE

  • Smoking-related deaths are falling

  • Life expectancy rises, both in affluent and disadvantaged areas, but the average length of life continues to be shorter in many disadvantaged areas

  • Average hospital stays due to alcohol related conditions rise
The 2009 version has now been published and are available here.


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Functional Limitations, Socioeconomic Status, and All-Cause Mortality in Moderate Alcohol Drinkers
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Volume 57 Issue 6, Pages 955 - 962

To determine whether the survival benefit associated with moderate alcohol use remains after accounting for nontraditional risk factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) and functional limitations.

Moderate drinkers have better risk factor profiles than nondrinkers, including higher SES and fewer functional limitations. Although these factors explain much of the survival advantage associated with moderate alcohol use, moderate drinkers maintain their survival advantage even after adjustment for these factors.


Request Reprint E-Mail: seijlee@gmail.com

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Beer consumption and the 'beer belly': scientific basis or common belief ?
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication 24 June 2009

The term 'beer belly' expresses the common belief that beer consumption is a major determinant of waist circumference (WC). We studied the gender-specific associations between beer consumption and WC (partially in relation to body weight and hip circumference (HC) change).

Beer consumption leads to WC gain, which is closely related to concurrent overall weight gain. This study does not support the common belief of a site-specific effect of beer on the abdomen, the beer belly.


Request Reprint E-Mail: m.schuetze@dife.de

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