A new smartphone app, which has been made available to the public today, has been found to be successful in helping UK veterans to reduce alcohol consumption.
Perfectionist traits — higher self-criticism, and unrealistic standards leading to isolation — are associated with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to the first study directly comparing patients with AUD to a healthy control group. Perfectionist people strive for unrealistic performance standards and are prone to self-criticism.
Heavy and light drinkers show differences in biological markers of the internal processes that regulate the 24-hour sleep/wake cycle. The study findings, reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, may have implications for the clinical management of patients seeking treatment for heavy drinking. Previous studies have shown that later circadian timing, manifesting as a preference for evening (‘night owl’) rather than morning (‘lark’) activity, is associated with increased alcohol consumption. However, research into the association between alcohol use and biological markers of circadian timing was lacking. Two such markers are DLMO (dim light melatonin onset – considered the gold standard circadian phase marker) and PIPR (the post-illumination pupil response – a measure of activity of photoreceptors in the eye that are a key influence on circadian timing). In the latest study, researchers compared sleep, DLMO-related measures, and photoreceptor responsivity in heavy and
Heightened negative mood and stress during early recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) impair people’s ability to distinguish between emotions, which in turn predicts drinking relapse three months later.
The manifestation of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and its social, health, and psychological implications depend in part on patient demographics. Yet researchers routinely exclude those demographics from analyses of non-medicinal AUD treatment trials, a review of studies has found. Consequently, little is known about how sex, gender, race, and ethnicity influence the effectiveness of those treatments, or which treatments are indicated — or not — for specific patients and communities. This is despite the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act in 1993 requiring that NIH-funded studies include diversity of sex/gender and race/ethnicity in their participant samples and analysis. Problematic alcohol use, which has high prevalence and low treatment rates, is a leading contributor to preventable death and disease. Non-pharmacological treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing (MI), contingency management, twelve-step programs, and more. Inequalitie
UNC School of Medicine researchers are beginning to parse the underlying genetic differences in people who abuse substances. The more they learn, the better chance they will be able to create therapies to help the millions of people who struggle with addiction.
Research from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology has shown that young adults who experienced childhood loneliness have higher stress levels and more problem drinking behaviors.
The new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease estimates that 1.34 billion people consumed harmful amounts of alcohol (1.03 billion males and 0.312 billion females) in 2020.
Consumption of seven or more units of alcohol per week is associated with higher iron levels in the brain, according to a study of almost 21,000 people publishing July 14th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine. Iron accumulation in the brain has been linked with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and is a potential mechanism for alcohol-related cognitive decline.
A new study has found that drinking alone as an adolescent and young adult can increase the risk of alcohol use disorder later in life, especially for women.
Alcohol can change the pattern of activity in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) in a mouse model, essentially telling the brain to change emotions, according to a study led by Tufts neuroscientists. Some of the same research team is also looking at the BLA for relevance for fear response.
The July issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology highlights new clinical science including using a smartphone app to assess stool form, rural-urban disparities in cirrhosis mortality, and lung infection risk in severe alcohol-related hepatitis. This issue also includes articles on pediatric IBD, therapy options for Crohn’s disease, a novel endoscopic suturing device, proton pump inhibitors, and more.
They may only be in 4th or 5th grade, but 1 in 10 pre-teen children already say they’re curious about using alcohol or tobacco products, and 1 in 50 say they’re curious about using marijuana, a new study shows. As many as 3% of the nearly 12,000 9- and 10-year-olds surveyed say they already have a friend who uses one of these substances. And those who said they did were also much more likely to be curious about trying alcohol or tobacco and other nicotine-containing products themselves.
New Mayo Clinic research finds that machine-learning algorithms can help health care staff distinguish the two conditions. In an article published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers show how algorithms may be effective predictive tools using a few simple variables and routinely available structured clinical information.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on many people’s lives. Emerging adults may have been particular impacted, given their transition from adolescence to adulthood during such a time of upheaval, with their educational and career aspirations thrown into disarray. A new study has found that the risk for depression tripled among young people – particularly younger women – during the pandemic, and that this risk persisted into 2021.
Older adults – those more than 50 years of age – who consume alcohol beyond healthy drinking guidelines are a growing public health concern. A new study has found that using text messaging can help reduce drinking among this population. These findings will be shared at the 45th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in Orlando, Florida.
Research shows that adolescents and young adults frequently overestimate the extent to which their peers drink alcohol, and that these overestimations increase risk for problem drinking behaviors, as well as dating violence. A recent study found that LGBTQIA2S+* teens likewise overestimate the frequency and quantity of alcohol use of other LGBTQIA2S+ teens, but also drink alcohol and experience dating violence at disproportionately higher rates than heterosexual, cisgender teens.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, policy interventions designed to reduce the virus’ spread included shelter-in-place (SIP) orders and phased “reopenings” of public spaces. Knowing that adult alcohol and substance use generally rose during the pandemic due to factors such as stress, boredom, worsening mental health, and increased alcohol availability, a new study sought to understand the impact of SIPs and reopenings on adolescent alcohol use in California. Analysis shows SIP decreased frequency of alcohol use. Also, compliance with SIP orders was associated with decreased frequency and quantity of use.
During 2010-2019, roughly the same decade that more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died in alcohol-related crashes, ridehailing emerged as a technology that was often cheaper and/or easier to access than taxis and public transit.
As of March 2022, 18 states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use of marijuana among adults 21 years and older, and recreational marijuana sales is legal in 14 of these states.
Military sexual trauma (MST) can have a corrosive impact on trust within the U.S. military, as well as a number of negative effects on the individual. A recent study has examined the prevalence of MST history among U.S. Army Reserve/National Guard (USAR/NG) soldiers, the extent to which MST history predicts risk for alcohol misuse and problems, and potential sex differences in these experiences and outcomes. Findings indicate that MST is alarmingly prevalent for both female and male service members; in fact, the prevalence of MST appears to be much higher for male service members than is often reported.
Prior research has demonstrated greater addiction vulnerability in women; for example, women advance from casual substance use to addiction at a faster rate, experience more severe withdrawal symptoms, exhibit higher rates of relapse, and have less treatment success than men. A new study shows that biobehavioral interactions in alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among women are cyclical in nature: women’s greater risk of personal histories of trauma coupled with a greater vulnerability to alcohol-related brain deficits can lead to more severe AUD effects.
Scientists investigating substance use are making progress on eliminating stigmatizing language that can perpetuate negative biases and worsen outcomes, according to a new analysis of published research articles. Nevertheless, the field has further to go.
New research has revealed a significant gap in prescribing of effective medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD). The study, reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, showed that just one in twenty patients with an alcohol-related diagnosis were prescribed an approved AUD drug (naltrexone, disulfiram, or acamprosate). The findings reinforce and build on previous evidence of under-prescribing, despite these treatments being proven to reduce heavy drinking and relapse. In the inpatient acute care setting, provision of AUD medication has been shown to be both feasible and associated with a reduction in re-admissions and emergency department (ED) visits. However, few prior studies had reported on prescribing habits in this setting. The current study examined prescribing in the acute inpatient care setting compared to other care settings within the University of Colorado Healthcare System.
Online resources for supporting recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) are promising but underused, a new study suggests. The expansion of digital recovery supports, such as video meetings, discussion forums, and social networking sites, could potentially help address a substantial unmet need for services. In 2020, fewer than one in ten Americans with current or recent substance use disorder received any form of treatment. Women are less likely to access treatment than men, research shows. Online services may make recovery support more accessible, eliminating certain barriers associated with traditional treatment (e.g., transportation and cost) and reducing others (e.g., stigma). Research is sparse, however, and the factors influencing the use and effects of digital services are not well understood. For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, researchers explored how people in recovery from AUD use online supports and whether that use is linked to gender or outcome
With stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, youth spent more time at home with family and were more isolated from in-person interaction with peers. Largely due to this social isolation from peers, substance use among youth declined, according to researchers at the WVU School of Public Health.
Rutgers poison control experts discuss legal substances beyond alcohol that can impair driving
Researchers conducted an original research study utilizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) to compare trends in mortality from alcoholic cirrhosis in the U.S. in 1999 with those 20 years later in 2019.
Here are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Aging channel on Newswise, a free source for journalists.
The more a person stares at themselves while talking with a partner in an online chat, the more their mood degrades over the course of the conversation, a new study finds. Alcohol use appears to worsen this effect.
Pregnant women’s use of alcohol correlates with that of their partner, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital shows.
A new theory of economic decision-making from Mina Mahmoudi, a lecturer in the Department of Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, offers an explanation as to why humans, in general, make decisions that are simply adequate, not optimal.
A study from Arizona State University and Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands has shown that conversations between a pair of 17-year-old friends can predict future drug and alcohol abuse. If the teens talked positively about alcohol or cannabis, they were more likely to be diagnosed with an alcohol or cannabis use disorder, respectively, by the time they were 27 years old.
Personal attitudes toward heavy alcohol consumption may be a better predictor of heavy drinking among college students than external factors such as peer pressure and a desire to conform, according to a Rutgers study.
In a newly published study, co-author H. Andrew Schwartz, PhD, of the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University, and colleagues determined that the language people used in Facebook posts can identify those at risk for hazardous drinking habits and alcohol use disorders.
Here are some of the latest articles added to the Behavioral Science channel on Newswise.
A five-year study has highlighted the importance of healthy sleep patterns in relation to future binge-drinking and cannabis use in adolescence and young adulthood, as reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The work builds on growing evidence that sleep characteristics are predictive of future substance use and related problems in young people, and could inform strategies for substance use prevention and intervention. Most previous studies assessed only a small range of sleep characteristics, and had limited follow-up. In the new analysis, researchers used six annual assessments from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study to examine whether multiple sleep characteristics in any year predict alcohol and cannabis use the following year. Data from over eight hundred NCANDA study participants, aged 12 to 21 at baseline, were included.
Deaths involving alcohol use disorder increased dramatically during the pandemic, according to a new study by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The study also found that young adults 25 to 44 years old experienced the steepest upward trend in alcohol use disorder mortality.
The language used in Facebook posts can identify people at risk of hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders (AUDs), according to a new study. Social media platforms are a “low-cost treasure trove” of data, researchers claim, expanding the options for studying, screening, and helping people at risk. Social media content in recent years has been used to explore various public health phenomena. For example, language and “likes” have predicted depression, hospital visits, low birthweight, obesity, and life expectancy. Social media language has also been linked to patterns of alcohol consumption and related problems. For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigators explored how convincingly the language of Facebook could be used to identify risky drinking. They compared the accuracy of multiple predictive tools, including a new technique for processing language that has rarely been applied to health research.
Pregnant women’s alcohol use is correlated with their partners’ drinking, according to a large European study — and partners are unlikely to meaningfully reduce or halt their alcohol consumption while expecting a baby. The findings may offer a new way of identifying women at risk of drinking in pregnancy and potentially intervening to prevent or reduce harm. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can seriously impair fetal health and development, causing stillbirth and lifelong disabilities. These include fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), the primary cause of non-genetic cognitive disability worldwide. Although the drinking patterns of women and their partners are known to be correlated, little attention has been given to partners’ alcohol use during pregnancy and how this may affect women’s drinking and pregnancy outcomes. For the study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, investigators searched for associations between pregnant women’s and their partners’ alcohol us
A new generation of wearable alcohol sensor has potential for use as a self-management tool by social drinkers, as reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Background: Sexual minority women disproportionately engage in heavy drinking and shoulder the burden of alcohol dependence. Although several intensive interventions are being developed to meet the needs of treatment-seeking sexual m...
A study of adult drinking in the US over time has identified distinct demographic subpopulations with diverging drinking trajectories during the first ten months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although population-wide average drinking increases in the pandemic were modest and time-limited, the aggregated data mask escalating drinking in certain subpopulations, raising public health concerns. The study, reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, provides insights into the sociodemographic communities that might benefit from intervention to counteract drinking increases − or reinforce drinking reductions − that were acquired during the pandemic.
A new paper in the Journal of Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that alcohol and tobacco products, in addition to foods high in sugar and fat, appear frequently in reality TV programs.
Gene editing may be a potential treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence, according to the results of an animal study published in the journal Science Advances. The researchers used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-dCas9 in their experiments to manipulate the histone acetylation and methylation processes at the Arc gene in models of adult rats.
A study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence shows that the connection of racial discrimination to problem drinking differs based on personality traits. People who tend to act impulsively in response to negative experiences are more likely to report problematic alcohol use that is associated with racism. But, people who enjoy seeking out new experiences are less likely to report problematic alcohol use that is associated with racism. Though this personality trait is thought to be a common risk factor for alcohol use disorder, this study suggests that people with sensation-seeking personalities can better tolerate or cope with difficult situations such as racism.
People may forgo displaying luxury brands and other signals of status when they want to convince others that they will collaborate well with a team, as people who signal their wealth and social status could be perceived as uncooperative, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
A new study found that disulfiram, a drug used to treat chronic alcoholism, can safely reduce anxiety levels in rodents.
Machine learning techniques can be used to predict treatment outcomes among people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to a study reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Patients often return to heavy drinking during and after their treatment for AUD, and may need multiple rounds of treatment before they can achieve long-term abstinence from heavy alcohol use. The predictive models identified in this study could be used to develop clinical systems that allow clinicians and patients to anticipate drinking relapses and adjust treatment before they occur, enhancing clinical care and outcomes. Patient characteristics associated with relapse have been identified previously using traditional statistical techniques, but methodological limitations have made it difficult to leverage these associations to create optimal predictive models. Machine learning – a branch of artificial intelligence involving the use of computer algorithms that can build and automatically imp
New studies published in The Journal of the American Dental Association underscore the importance of regular dental visits in the prevention of the sixth most common cancer in the world – oral cancer.
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