Alcohol | Addiction Treatment Strategies

The vodka Red Bull, or VRB, has become a favorite cocktail among some young revelers. (One fan even made a video homage, to the tune of Rupert Holmes’ 1979 hit “Escape:The Pi?a Colada Song.”) But scientists say that tipplers of caffeine-laden energy drinks mixed with alcohol may have a tougher time knowing when to stop than those who imbibe booze alone.
Researchers at Northern Kentucky University tested students’ reaction times while drinking Red Bull with vodka. The students who drank the buzzy cocktail felt more alert and peppy than students who were just quaffing vodka, but were just as bad at controlling their…

Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR) has received a $10 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to provide DNA extraction, basic genetic testing, and repository services for more than 46,000 saliva samples, in support of national research efforts to determine the genetic and environmental factors that lead to alcoholism.
 
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alcohol abuse and its related problems cost the United States billions of dollars each year in lost productivity; illness; property destruction, violence, and crime; and social welfare…

Young drinkers are more likely than other underage drinkers to get alcohol from their family, according to data from the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Nearly one-half of youths ages 12 to 14 who drank alcohol in the past month obtained the alcohol from a parent, guardian, or other adult family member* (31%) or took the alcohol from their own home (15%). In contrast, 27% of underage drinkers ages 15 to 17 and 18% of those ages 18 to 20 reported getting alcohol from family or their home the last time they drank. These findings suggest the need for increased parental education on the effects of early alcohol use as well…

Youths who receive more than ?10 (less than US$20) a week in spending money and who buy alcohol for themselves are more likely to become ‘problem drinkers’, a survey of over 10,000 teenagers reveals.
Mark A Bellis from Liverpool John Moores University and colleagues studied the results of an alcohol questionnaire given anonymously to 15-16 year old drinkers in North West England. Almost 90% admitted to drinking alcohol, of which 38% binged, 24% drank frequently and 50% drank in public.
Around a third bought their own alcohol, making them six times more likely to drink in public and more than twice as likely to binge and drink…

New research to be presented at next week’s International Conference on Drugs and Young Peopleshows that many 12-17year olds are attracted to drinking alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs), especially when they look like soft drinks or regular energy drinks.
The research undertaken by the University of Wollongong presents the views of Australian adolescents talking about alcohol energy drinks. These products – which combine alcohol, soft drinks, and ingredients such as caffeine and guarana – are a relatively new entry to the alcopop market.
Almost half of those surveyed (43%) agreed that they would be more likely to purchase an…

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Recent research has implicated the endogenous opioid system in the development of alcohol use disorders. The A118G polymorphism of the OPRM1 gene has been shown to confer functional differences to mu-opioid receptors, such that the G variant binds beta-endorphin three times more strongly than the A variant. The goal of this study was to test whether the A118G polymorphism is associated with sensitivity to the effects of alcohol.
METHODS: Participants who were either homozygous for the A allele (n = 23) or heterozygous (n = 15) received intravenous doses of alcohol designed to reach three target levels of breath…

Thanks in part to studies that follow subjects for a long time, psychologists are learning more about differences between people. In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the author describes how psychologists can use their data to learn about the different ways that people’s minds work.
 
Most psychology research is done by asking a big group of people the same questions at the same time. “So we might get a bunch of Psych 101 undergrads, administer a survey, ask about how much they use alcohol and what their mood is, and just look and…

Parents with tweens or teens often wonder how to effectively parent their children so that the kids can make sound decisions even when their parents are not around, including decisions about drugs and alcohol.
 
A recent study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs has confirmed that parenting style, in fact, does have an influence on their child’s impulsiveness, including control over their drinking, and the possibility of alcohol problems. Julie Patock-Peckham, Ph.D., and colleagues broke parenting styles into three categories: authoritarian (emphasis on rules and obedience and lack of discussion), authoritative (clear…