The appeal to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general came in a 34-page report issued by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Berkeley Media Studies Group of the Public Health Institute. . . . . .
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A genetic variant of a receptor in the brain’s reward circuitry plays an important role in determining whether the neurotransmitter dopamine is released in the brain following alcohol intake, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Dopamine is involved in transmitting the euphoria and other positive subjective effects produced by alcohol.
A report of the findings, which help explain the diverse genetic susceptibility for alcohol use disorders, will appear online in Molecular Psychiatry on May 18, 2010. . . . . .
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The health and social impact of drinking in excess of internationally recognized weekly (>21 units in men; >14 units in women) and daily (>4 units in men; >3 units in women) recommendations for ‘sensible’ alcohol intake are largely unknown.
In fully adjusted analyses, surpassing guidelines for sensible alcohol intake was associated with an increased risk of hypertension [daily guidelines only: P-value(trend): 0.012], financial problems [weekly guidelines: P-value(difference): 0.046] and, to a lesser degree, accidents [weekly guidelines: P-value(difference): 0.065]. There was no association between either indicator of alcohol intake and mortality risk.
In the present study, there was some evidence for a detrimental effect on health and social circumstances of exceeding current internationally recognized weekly and daily guidelines for alcohol intake.
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The purpose of this netpublikation is to give municipalities a status on alcohol field and to identify future challenges. The desire is that publication's figures may contribute to the planning and development of municipal alcohol action.
Prevention, early intervention and treatment of alcohol area is an important area for municipalities. Alcohol is very important for the Danish health. European figures show that alcohol causes 17% of the total disease burden. With local government reform the municipalities have been given a major responsibility on both the preventive and the therapeutic area as under the municipal responsibility for the citizen-oriented prevention and municipalities responsible for publicly funded alcohol treatment.
Alcoholic significant expenditure in the municipalities. The municipal spending is among the second to the financing of hospital care for people treated for effects of excessive alcohol consumption and alcohol treatment. But also for social spending in particular care of citizens, transfer income and expenses for relatives - including the placement of children outside the home.
When the number of people in publicly funded alcohol treatment or medical held up in comparison to the number of alcohol-dependent, it indicates that there is a pending location. Prevention and treatment options are good and there is therefore a great potential to exploit these more than it does today.
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This study was aimed at assessing the psychometric qualities of the abbreviated versions of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-3, AUDIT-4, AUDIT-C, AUDIT-PC, AUDIT-QF, FAST, and Five-Shot) and at comparing them to the 10-item AUDIT and the CAGE in 2 samples of Brazilian adults.
The validity and internal consistency of the scales were assessed in a sample of 530 subjects attended at an emergency department and at a Psychosocial Care Center for Alcohol and Drugs. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV was used as the diagnostic comparative measure for the predictive validity assessment. The concurrent validity between the scales was analyzed by means of Pearson's correlation coefficient.
The assessment of the predictive validity of the abbreviated versions showed high sensitivity (of 0.78 to 0.96) and specificity (of 0.74 to 0.94) indices, with areas under the curve as elevated as those of the AUDIT (0.89 and 0.92 to screen for abuse and 0.93 and 0.95 in the screening of dependence). The CAGE presented lower indices: 0.81 for abuse and 0.87 for dependence. The analysis of the internal consistency of the AUDIT and its versions exhibited Cronbach's alpha coefficients between 0.83 and 0.94, while the coefficient for the CAGE was 0.78. Significant correlations were found between the 10-item AUDIT and its versions, ranging from 0.91 to 0.99. Again, the results for the CAGE were satisfactory (0.77), although inferior to the other instruments.
The results obtained in this study confirm the validity of the abbreviated versions of the AUDIT for the screening of alcohol use disorders and show that their psychometric properties are as satisfactory as those of the 10-item AUDIT and the CAGE.
Request Reprint E-Mail: jcrippa@fmrp.usp.br
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Impulsivity is genetically correlated with, and precedes, addictive behaviors and alcoholism. If impulsivity or attention is causally related to addiction, certain pharmacological manipulations of impulsivity and/or attention may affect alcohol drinking, and vice versa.
The current studies were designed to explore the relationship among impulsivity, drinking, and vigilance in selectively bred High Alcohol Preferring (HAP) mice, a line that has previously demonstrated both high impulsivity and high alcohol consumption. Amphetamine, naltrexone, and memantine were tested in a delay discounting (DD) task for their effects on impulsivity and vigilance. The same drugs and doses were also assessed for effects on alcohol drinking in a 2-bottle choice test.
HAP mice were subjected to a modified version of adjusting amount DD using 0.5-second and 10-second delays to detect decreases and increases, respectively, in impulsive responding. In 2 experiments, mice were given amphetamine (0.4, 0.8, or 1.2 mg/kg), naltrexone (3 and 10 mg/kg), and memantine (1 and 5 mg/kg) before DD testing. Another pair of studies used scheduled access, 2-bottle choice drinking to assess effects of amphetamine (0.4, 1.2, or 3.0 mg/kg), naltrexone (3 and 10 mg/kg), and memantine (1 and 5 mg/kg) on alcohol consumption.
Amphetamine dose-dependently reduced impulsivity and vigilance decrement in DD, but similar doses left alcohol drinking unaffected. Naltrexone and memantine decreased alcohol intake at doses that did not affect water drinking but had no effects on impulsivity or vigilance decrement in the DD task.
Contrary to our hypothesis, none of the drugs tested here, while effective on either alcohol drinking or impulsivity, decreased both behaviors. These findings suggest that the genetic association between drinking and impulsivity observed in this population is mediated by mechanisms other than those targeted by the drugs tested in these studies.
Request Reprint E-Mail: ngrahame@iupui.edu
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Alcohol addiction may reflect adaptations to stress, reward, and regulatory brain systems. While extensive research has identified both stress and impulsivity as independent risk factors for drinking, few studies have assessed the interactive relationship between stress and impulsivity in terms of hazardous drinking within a community sample of regular drinkers.
One hundred and thirty regular drinkers (56M/74F) from the local community were assessed for hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). All participants were also administered the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) as a measure of trait impulsivity and the Cumulative Stress/Adversity Checklist (CSC) as a comprehensive measure of cumulative adverse life events. Standard multiple regression models were used to ascertain the independent and interactive nature of both overall stress and impulsivity as well as specific types of stress and impulsivity on hazardous and harmful drinking.
Recent life stress, cumulative traumatic stress, overall impulsivity, and nonplanning-related impulsivity as well as cognitive and motor-related impulsivity were all independently predictive of AUDIT scores. However, the interaction between cumulative stress and total impulsivity scores accounted for a significant amount of the variance, indicating that a high to moderate number of adverse events and a high trait impulsivity rating interacted to affect greater AUDIT scores. The subscale of cumulative life trauma accounted for the most variance in AUDIT scores among the stress and impulsivity subscales.
Findings highlight the interactive relationship between stress and impulsivity with regard to hazardous drinking. The specific importance of cumulative traumatic stress as a marker for problem drinking is also discussed.
Request Reprint E-Mail: helen.fox@yale.edu
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Conceptual models implicating disinhibitory traits often are applied to understanding emergent alcohol use, but, little is known of how inter-individual changes in these constructs relate to increases in alcohol use in early adolescence.
The current study utilized behavioral and self-report instruments to capture the disinhibitory-based constructs of sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity to examine if increases in these constructs over time related to increases in early adolescent alcohol use.
Participants included a community sample of 257 early adolescents (aged 9 to 12) who completed a self-report measure of sensation seeking, a behavioral task assessing risk-taking propensity, and a self-report of past year alcohol use, at 3 annual assessment waves.
Both sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity demonstrated significant increases over time, with additional evidence that change in the behavioral measure of risk-taking propensity was not because of practice effects. Greater sensation seeking and greater risk-taking propensity demonstrated concurrent relationships with past year alcohol use at each assessment wave. Prospective analyses indicated that after accounting for initial levels of alcohol use, sensation seeking, and risk-taking propensity at the first assessment wave, larger increases in both constructs predicted greater odds of alcohol use at subsequent assessment waves.
Results indicate the role of individual changes in disinhibitory traits in initial alcohol use in early adolescents. Specifically, findings suggest it is not simply initial levels of sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity that contribute to subsequent alcohol use but in particular increases in each of these constructs that predict greater odds of use.
Future work should continue to assess the development of sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity in early adolescence and target these constructs in interventions as a potential means to reduce adolescent alcohol use.
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Europe & Alcohol Health Harm - Mapping, understanding, and preventing a problem 
[966 KB]
Witold Zatoñski
Cancer Center Institute of Oncology, Warsaw
Trends in Alcohol Consumption among 15-16 years old European students: THE ESPAD Project [5 MB]
Fernanda Feijão
Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon
Young binge drinkers in need of emergency care – the EU picture [934 KB]
Walter Farke
Youth drinking and binge drinking - the role of medical professions [3 MB]
Ian Gilmore
Royal College of Physicians of London
“Prevention Intervention System” for children in The Netherlands [6 MB] N. van der Lely
Paediatric alcohol policlinic Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis, Delft (The Netherlands)
Youth drinking and binge drinking – drivers and protective factors [407 KB] Eileen Kaner & Stephanie O’Neil
Newcastle University, Institute of Health & Society
Alcohol, Children and Parents - Science not Seduction [3 MB]
Mark A. Bellis
Liverpool John Moores University, Centre for Public Health
Alcohol and Parenting 2006 - 2009 [378 KB] Victor Everhardt
Trimbos Institute, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
The role parents and families could and should play – An example from Germany [2 MB] Federal Association of the German Spirits Industry and Importers (BSI), Bonn
The struggle against alcohol abuse for young children - Collaboration on three levels [237 KB] Ton Duif
European School Headmasters Association (ESHA)
Youth alcohol consumption and the role of parents [323 KB] .
Martin Schmalzried
Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE)
Parents Role in Youth Drinking and Binge Drinking – A Youth Perspective [2 MB] Nathalie A. Rodríguez McCullough
Alcohol Policy Youth Network (APYN)
Impulsivity represents a complex, multifaceted construct with relevance to alcohol use, abuse, and dependence. Researchers are refining the definitions and assessment of different subtypes of impulsive behavior and relating these to the causes and consequences of alcohol-related behaviors and disorders.
A satellite symposium on alcohol and impulsivity was held at the 2009 convention of the Research Society on Alcoholism.
This article provides an overview of the rationale for the symposium, a synopsis of review and original research articles emanating from the symposium, and a description of the implications of the work and possible future research directions.
Request Reprint E-Mail: marc.potenza@yale.edu
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Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are a devastating public health problem. The construct of impulsivity is biologically based and heritable, and its various dimensions are relevant for understanding alcohol use.
The goal of the current manuscript is to review recent behavioral and biological research examining various dimensions of impulsivity and their relation to AUDs from risk for initial use through dependence and relapse. Moreover, we also highlight key psychological variables including affective processes as they relate to current use and early indications of alcohol problems, as well as psychopathology, violence, and aggression in relation to AUDs.
Each section includes a critical summary and we conclude the review with future directions focused on issues relevant to measurement, causality, and intervention.
Throughout the review, we attempt to be as specific as possible about the dimensions of impulsivity being referenced, while attempting to draw parallels and highlighting differences as the existing literature allows.
Request Reprint E-Mail: clejuez@psyc.umd.edu
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Alcohol impairs inhibitory control, and it alters implicit alcohol cognitions including attentional bias and implicit associations. These effects are seen after doses of alcohol which do not lead to global impairments in cognitive performance.
We review studies which demonstrate that the effects of alcohol on inhibitory control are associated with the ability of alcohol to prime alcohol-seeking behavior.
We also hypothesize that alcohol-induced changes in implicit alcohol cognitions may partially mediate alcohol-induced priming of the motivation to drink.
Based on contemporary theoretical models and conceptualizations of executive function, impulsivity, and the motivational salience of alcohol-related cues, we speculate on other aspects of cognition that may underlie alcohol's effects on alcohol seeking.
Inconsistencies in existing research and priorities for future research are highlighted, including dose effects and the potential interactions between chronic heavy drinking and the acute effects of alcohol on these cognitive processes.
Request Reprint E-Mail: mfield@liverpool.ac.uk
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Drug use disorders are often accompanied by deficits in the capacity to efficiently process reward-related information and to monitor, suppress, or override reward-controlled behavior when goals are in conflict with aversive or immediate outcomes.
This emerging deficit in behavioral flexibility and impulse control may be a central component of the progression to addiction, as behavior becomes increasingly driven by drugs and drug-associated cues at the expense of more advantageous activities.
Understanding how neural mechanisms implicated in impulse control are affected by addictive drugs may therefore prove a useful strategy in the search for new treatment options. Animal models of impulsivity and addiction could make a significant contribution to this endeavor.
Here, some of the more common behavioral paradigms used to measure different aspects of impulsivity across species are outlined, and the importance of the response to reward-paired cues in such paradigms is discussed.
Naturally occurring differences in forms of impulsivity have been found to be predictive of future drug self-administration, but drug exposure can also increase impulsive responding. Such data are in keeping with the suggestion that impulsivity may contribute to multiple stages within the spiral of addiction.
From a neurobiological perspective, converging evidence from rat, monkey, and human studies suggest that compromised functioning within the orbitofrontal cortex may critically contribute to the cognitive sequelae of drug abuse.
Changes in gene transcription and protein expression within this region may provide insight into the mechanism underlying drug-induced cortical hypofunction, reflecting new molecular targets for the treatment of uncontrolled drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior.
Request Reprint E-Mail: cwinstanley@psych.ubc.ca
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High levels of impulsivity have been associated with a number of substance abuse disorders including alcohol abuse. Research has not yet revealed whether these high levels predate the development of alcohol abuse.
The current study examined impulsivity in 15 inbred strains of mice (A/HeJ, AKR/J, BALB/cJ, C3H/HeJ, C57BL/6J, C57L/J, C58/J, CBA/J, DBA/1J, DBA/2J, NZB/B1NJ, PL/J, SJL/J, SWR/J, and 129P3/J) using a Go/No-go task, which was designed to measure a subject's ability to inhibit a behavior. Numerous aspects of response to ethanol and other drugs of abuse have been examined in these strains.
There were significant strain differences in the number of responses made during the No-go signal (false alarms) and the extent to which strains responded differentially during the Go and No-go signals (d'). The rate of responding prior to the cue did not differ among strains, although there was a statistically significant correlation between false alarms and precue responding that was not related to basal activity level. Interstrain correlations suggested that false alarms and rate of responding were associated with strain differences in ethanol-related traits from the published literature.
The results of this study do support a link between innate level of impulsivity and response to ethanol and are consistent with a genetic basis for some measures of behavioral inhibition.
Request Reprint E-Mail: mitchesu@ohsu.edu
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