Feature Channels: Alcohol and Alcoholism

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A new clinical guideline from the American College of Gastroenterology offers the first recommendations in over 10 years on the evaluation of abnormal liver chemistries. For the first time in a liver test guideline, the authors define a normal healthy serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level for women and men (up to 25 IU/L for women, up to 33 IU/L for men) and recommend that levels above this should be assessed by physicians.

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Nationwide, the mortality rate from deaths caused by drugs, alcohol and suicide rose 52 percent from 2000 to 2014, according to new research from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Most of the increase was driven by a surge in prescription opioid and heroin overdoses.

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Adolescents who are violent toward their romantic partners are also more likely to think about or attempt suicide, carry a weapon, threaten others with a weapon and use drugs or alcohol than peers in non-violent relationships, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after a traumatic event or events. Although it is most often associated with military personnel exposed to the trauma of combat, it can also disproportionately affect vulnerable American Indian and Alaskan-Native (AI/AN) populations. Because alcohol use disorders (AUDs) also have a disproportionate impact on AI/ANs, this study compared both lifetime PTSD and past-year AUD among AI/ANs and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs).

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Alcohol use can be found in suicide deaths and unintentional deaths due to injuries such as those from motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). The authors of this study argue that it is important to distinguish between the roles that alcohol may play in the two different types of deaths. Consequently, they compared postmortem toxicology results for alcohol and other drugs, alone and in combination, in suicide and MVC deaths.

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Patients who reported the most positive relationships with their counselors on a session-to-session basis had fewer days of drinking and fewer days of heavy drinking between treatment sessions than patients whose relationship was not as positive. The results indicate that efforts to ensure a good match between patient and counselor can have considerable benefits to the patient’s recovery.

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Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) occurs on a spectrum of severity. The majority of people who drink excessively develop a fatty liver, which though often symptom free, can progress to a state of inflammation, fibrosis, and cell death that can be fatal. Little is known about liver disruption that may occur in problem drinkers who are not alcohol dependent. To help understand the development of ALD, this study used a rodent model to examine differences in liver damage between binge drinkers and heavy drinkers.

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Older adults suffering from multiple chronic health conditions and depression are nearly five times as likely to be problem drinkers as older adults with the same conditions and no depression.

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Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) develop with time and in stages. Following the initiation of drinking, some people progress to problem drinking, and then develop a “cluster” of specific problems to comprise an AUD. However, not all stages of AUD development have been studied equally. This report examines high-risk families to understand underlying influences across multiple stages of AUD development.

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A new analysis of 12 long-term studies published since 2008 from across the globe finds that young people under the legal drinking age who are more exposed to alcohol marketing appear more likely to start drinking early and also to engage in binge drinking.

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Experiments in mice by researchers at Johns Hopkins suggest that if the goal is to ease or extinguish fearful emotional memories like those associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol may make things worse, not better. Results of their study demonstrate, they say, that alcohol strengthens emotional memories associated with fearful experiences and prevents mice from pushing aside their fears.

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Driving while impaired (DWI) causes more than 10,000 deaths per year in the United States. Although enforcing criminal sanctions for DWI is the traditional response, the success of these measures has been inconsistent. This study looked at risk perceptions as a method of reducing the frequency of DWI - in other words, whether the threat of being apprehended for DWI can deter people from engaging in this behavior.

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State laws requiring ignition interlocks for all drunk driving offenders appear to reduce the number of fatal drunk driving crashes, a new study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Colorado School of Public Health researchers suggests.

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The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing has received a $3.25 million federal grant to continue its research to identify risk and protective factors related to drinking and drinking-related problems among sexual-minority — lesbian or bisexual — women.

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Gambling addiction activates the same brain pathways as drug and alcohol cravings, suggests new research.

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College matriculation is often associated with increases in the frequency and intensity of drinking. This study used a national sample to examine the association between being a college student and changes in excessive drinking from late adolescence through young adulthood and whether students’ residing with their parents during the school year affected the association.

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Bai jiu (白酒) are distilled spirits made and used throughout rural China for everyday use and special occasions. Distillation of bai jiu is regulated lightly or not at all and nearly every town or village has a distiller. Little is known about the composition of these Chinese spirits, a gap this study seeks to fill given the health risks associated with their high ethanol and high acetaldehyde concentrations.

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The Addiction Medicine Foundation today announced the accreditation of two additional fellowship programs to train addiction medicine physicians. The Foundation has supported the establishment of 44 addiction medicine fellowship training programs to date, based at major medical schools and teaching hospitals across North America, and is committed to establishing a total of 125 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited addiction medicine fellowship programs by 2025.

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Residential “in-patient” treatment for substance abuse is a preferred option for those seeking to recover. However, relapse within the first year following discharge ranges from 37% to 56%. Engagement in aftercare improves this statistic; only about half use outpatient care, and even fewer stick with it. Researchers explored the factors that hinder and help individuals transition from long-term residential substance abuse treatment centers to the community.

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High school girls with body image behavioral misperceptions are more likely to have had at least one alcoholic drink, as well as engaged in episodes of heavy drinking, than their peers without these misperceptions.

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Teenagers' use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco declined significantly in 2016 at rates that are at their lowest since the 1990s, a new national study showed.

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Although alcohol is believed to play a role in college sexual assaults, a new study finds no evidence that male students’ binge drinking per se boosts their odds of becoming a perpetrator.

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Trends of self-reported past-month binge alcohol use and alcohol use disorder were examined among adults age 50 and older. The researchers found significant increases in past-year alcohol use, past-month alcohol use, past-month binge drinking, and alcohol use disorders.

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A liver transplant is usually the last-chance remedy for end-stage liver disease. Quality of life and/or survival rates within the first five post-transplant years, independent of the primary reason for the transplant, are similar to those for patients with other types of cirrhosis. Alcohol relapses after liver transplantation are a critical issue and severe alcohol relapse can have dire consequences. This study compares the routine post-transplant evaluation of drinking with one obtained through a specific addiction consultation.

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Andre Maciel, an assistant marketing professor at Nebraska, spent three years studying craft beer drinkers and how they train their taste buds to prefer craft beer over mass-market brands.

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Resilience considerably reduces risk for developing alcohol use disorders, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden.

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Certain personality traits – such as disinhibition (a lack of restraint) and impulsivity – increase the chances of developing alcohol use disorders (AUDs).

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UCLA study looks at theta burst stimulation as intervention in problem behaviors

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In the largest study of its kind, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and colleagues in Europe identified a gene variant that suppresses the desire to drink alcohol.

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A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has found that addiction treatment results improved when teens in a residential program stopped smoking.

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The holiday season sometimes brings with it excessive alcohol consumption. Women need to be aware that even a lit bit of holiday cheer can cause some serious health problems.

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Researchers from around the country who are studying alcohol’s negative effects on the body discussed their latest findings during a meeting at Loyola University Chicago’s Health Sciences campus.

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Research from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions suggests the approach to preventing alcohol and drug use by some adolescents should begin in early childhood.

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Repeated binge drinking during adolescence can affect brain functions in future generations, potentially putting offspring at risk for such conditions as depression, anxiety, and metabolic disorders, a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study has found.

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Siblings bear responsibility for the spread of problem behaviors. Identifying the exact nature of that influence has proven difficult, because behavior problems in siblings can also be traced to friends, shared genetics and shared experiences with parents. Evidence describing how problem behaviors spread between siblings has been scarce – until now, thanks to a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study on identical and fraternal twins.

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Researchers at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Omni-Net Birth Defects Prevention Program in Ukraine have identified a blood test that may help predict how severely a baby will be affected by alcohol exposure during pregnancy.

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Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Texas A&M College of Medicine and the Omni-Net Birth Defects Prevention Program in Ukraine have identified a blood test that may help predict how severely a baby will be affected by alcohol exposure during pregnancy.

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Researchers at the University of Washington tested a telephone-based intervention for military members struggling with alcohol abuse, with promising results. Participants significantly reduced their drinking over time, had lower rates of alcohol dependence and were more likely to seek treatment.

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Recent research suggests that some women restrict food before and while drinking, quite possibly to compensate for alcohol-related calories. This can result in a combined state of fasting/alcohol intake, which can lead to higher breath alcohol concentrations (BrACs). Artificially sweetened alcohol mixers are also a commonly reported weight-control strategy. To determine whether artificial sweeteners accelerate alcohol responses or sugar dampens its effect (or a combination of both), this study investigated the effects of consuming alcohol with mixers containing no sweetener, sugar, or artificial sweetener on BrACs in a group of young women.

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Researchers found that rodents that had been exposed to stress had a weakened alcohol-induced dopamine response and voluntarily drank more alcohol compared to controls. The blunted dopamine signaling to ethanol arose due to changes in the circuitry in the ventral tegmental area, the heart of the brain's reward system.

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Scientists who use postmortem brain tissue to study alcohol’s effects on brain structure and function will find this research interesting. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is an alcohol metabolite and its concentration in whole blood samples is a biomarker of drinking habits. For this study, scientists examined PEth levels in postmortem brains of individuals known to have had alcohol use disorders (AUDs).

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Researchers in the social sciences have been searching for a holy grail: an accurate way to predict who is likely to engage in problematic behavior, like using drugs.

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The latest research and features in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.

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Have you heard of the CNN effect? There is also a “fake ID effect:” This is when a fake piece of identification facilitates later harms. Researchers already know that underage college students who obtain and use false identification are at risk for negative outcomes. This study investigated the strength of the fake ID effect to determine whether having a fake ID is a signal of being at risk or it actually increases the likelihood that a student will suffer alcohol-related problems.

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Researchers conducted a cross-sectional chart review of 1,085 patients older than 18 who presented to the KATH emergency department within eight hours of an injury and found 382 subjects, or 35 percent, tested positive for any level of alcohol in their systems.

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In an effort to put the brakes on sobering statistics related to teenagers driving under the influence, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine will join forces with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) to reduce alcohol-impaired driving among San Diego youth ages 15 to 20.

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A unique research project at The Ohio State University aims to analyze drinking behavior the way engineers might analyze a mechanical system.

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Engineers funded by NIBIB have developed a small device, worn on the skin, that detects alcohol levels in perspiration and sends the information to the uses smart phone in just 8 minutes. It was designed as a convenient method for individuals to monitor their alcohol intake.

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Adolescence can be a challenging time for both young people and their parents. Adolescents often face temptations to experiment with various substances and, unfortunately, this is the time when problem substance use typically begins. Vulnerability likely stems from at least two changes that occur during adolescence: although there are rapid increases in sensation seeking during early- to mid-adolescence, gradual improvements in impulse control become evident only during later adolescence. This study examines how these processes develop in high-risk youths.