Alcoholism

The 2010 revised alcohol section of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report included some alarming changes. The guidelines would radically alter the definition of “moderate drinking” by increasing the daily consumption suitable for men and women, despite lack of randomized studies on the health effects of alcohol consumption. Many addiction specialist are protesting this potentially dangerous public health message.

Previous Dietary Guidelines for alcohol consumption outlines the “safest” amount being two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. The 2010 Advisory report proposed guidelines based on average, rather than daily, consumption. And the report defined “moderate” (a.k.a. “safe”) drinking as up to four drinks per day for men and three drinks per day for women (so long as the average limits are not exceeded: 3 days a week or less).

However, specialists worry that by relaxing these guidelines some may increase their drinking to these new levels (doubling daily intake for men and tripling it for women), and find the new guidelines to be neither safe nor desirable from a public health perspective. Currently, four drinks for men and three drinks for women fall just short of amount defined as “binge” drinking. However, epidemiologic studies have found an increased risk for unintentional injuries (car crashes) as well as chronic diseases and substance abuse with these levels of drinking. This is especially true for women. We’ve posted before on this blog the dangers that alcohol pose for women. Click here to read how that second glass of wine can actually have the adverse effects of the first one.

With no evidence supporting that 4/3 drinking guidelines are safer than 2/1, many find these proposed guidelines to be ill-advised with the possibility for adverse social consequences. And they are encouraging those in the drug and alcohol field to speak up against these changes.

According to a recent study released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), hospital emergency visits dealing with underage drinking nearly double during the 4th of July Holiday weekend. The number of underage drinking-related visits to the emergency room are 87 percent higher this weekend than any other day in July.

In light of this information, SAMHSA reiterates the importance of reminding youth that underage drinking is not a harmless right of passage. It can have serious consequences with the potential of harming oneself, another, or even death. Because parents are the frontline force in preventing underage drinking, they are a key element in the prevention of underage alcohol use. It’s important to also remember that the earlier a teen begins drinking, the more they are at risk for developing substance abuse problems later in life. In fact, more than 4 out of ten people who begin drinking before the age of 15, develop substance abuse problems.

According to reports, 40 percent of kids have tried alcohol by the time they reach the eighth grade. It’s important for parents to remember three rules of frontline prevention (SAMHSA): talk early, talk often, and get others involved.

Talk Early: 70 percent of kids say their parents are the reason they don’t drink. Talk to your kids about the health and safety risk of drinking when young. It’s also important to get your kids talking to you. Find out what your kids social influences are, so you can help them build defenses.

Talk Often: One conversation isn’t enough to fully explain the dangers of alcohol at such a young age, or to help your child build the tools to be able to say no. By making it a regular topic of discussion, a child will feel more comfortable about talking with a parent about underage drinking.

Get Others Involved: More than 70 percent of eight graders said that alcohol was easy to get from family or friends. And though parents are the frontline, it’s important that they recruit others to be active and positive role models in their child’s life. Talk to other family members, the school, other parents, peers, and community members. Make sure to let them know where you stand on underage drinking. Share the facts with them!
Have a safe and sunny 4th of July!

According to a new study by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), people who drink more alcohol are also likely to eat less fruit and consume more calories from a combination of alcoholic beverages and foods high in unhealthy fats and added sugars. The study, which was published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, examined more than 15,000 adults in the United States and found that increased alcoholic beverage consumption was associated with decreased quality in diet.

Heavy drinking and dietary factors have both independently been associated with cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and other health problems. The study raises the question as to whether the combination of heavy drinking and poor diet might interact to further increase health risks.

“Our findings underscore the importance of moderation for individuals who choose to consume alcoholic beverages, and a greater awareness of healthy food choices among such individuals,” said one of the researchers. The 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines define moderate drinking as no more than one drink on any day for women and no more than two drinks on any day for men.

New research found that activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the brain could determine a neurobiological for alcohol dependence risk. The ACC (highlighted in the photo) is the frontal portion of the cingulate cortex. It appears to play a significant role in a wide variety of brain functions including regulation of blood pressure and heart rate, but also of rational cognitive functions like decision making and reward anticipation.

Previous research has found that activation of the ACC can be associated with risk factors that lead to alcohol abuse, such as low alcohol effects and positive alcohol expectations, especially among adolescents. This study, which was funded through the University of Heidelberg and will be published in the May 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, used a spatial working-memory task to examine ACC activity among adults.

The study focused on three groups of adults: non-dependent light social drinkers, non-dependent heavy social drinkers, and non-treatment-seeking alcohol dependent drinkers. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers examined the brain activity of the drinkers while they performed a spatial working-memory task. The participants were also asked to complete measures of automatic alcohol-related thoughts and behavior, provide information about alcohol use in the preceding 90 days, and answer questions designed to measure general intelligence. (Science Daily)

The study found that those in the alcohol dependent group had greater activation of the dorsal ACC than those in the non-dependent, light and heavy social drinkers. Researchers said the study showed a possibility for premorbid (i.e. occurring before the development of disease) differences in brain structure and function among individuals that increase the risk for the development of alcohol dependence in some but not others.

“Although alcohol consumption in non-dependent heavy drinkers and [alcohol dependent] drinkers was similar,” said one of the researchers, “[but] we found increased activation of the ACC in the group of [alcohol dependent] drinkers. Furthermore, we found increased activation in the hippocampus and the thalamus in participants with frequent and intense automatic alcohol-related thoughts and behaviour.”

The researches hope that their study and similar studies will lead to diagnostic tools that will help individuals receive the best possible prevention or treatment.

Is there a relationship between candy, alcoholism and depression? A recent study published in Addiction found that children’s response to intense sweet tastes is related to alcoholism and depression: both a family history of alcoholism and the child’s self-report of depression. The research revealed how desire for sweets differs among children based on underlying familial and biological factors.

Although a sweet taste is rewarding to almost all kids, Dr. Julie Mennella, a developmental psychobiologist at the Monell Center and the study’s lead author, says that “certain groups of children may be especially attracted to intense sweetness due to their underlying biology.”

According to Medical News Today, researchers examined the sweet preferences of children with a genetic predisposition to alcoholism because sweet taste and alcohol activate many of the same reward circuits in the brain. They also studied the influence of depression, hypothesizing that children with depressive symptoms might have a greater affinity for sweets because sweets make them feel better. 300 children between 5 and 12 years of age tasted five levels of sucrose (table sugar) in water to determine their most preferred level of sweetness. The children also were asked questions to assess the presence of depressive symptoms, while their mothers reported information on family alcohol use. Nearly half the children had a family history of alcoholism and almost one-quarter were classified as exhibiting depressive symptoms.

The study found that the liking for intense sweetness was greatest in the 37 children having both a positive family history of alcoholism and also reporting depressive symptoms.

Mennella noted that the findings do not necessarily mean that there is a relationship between early sweet preferences and alcoholism later in life. “At this point, we don’t know whether this higher ‘bliss point’ for sweets is a marker for later alcohol use,” she said. However, current findings highlight the need for additional research to identify whether these clusters of children will require different strategies to help them reduce their intake of sweets and possibly substance abuse prevention measures.

In a recent study soon to be published in Biological Psychiatry, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute found that the stress hormone, the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), may play an important role in the development and continuation of alcohol dependence.

“It represents an important step in understanding how the brain changes when it moves from a normal to an alcohol-dependent state,” said Associate Professor Marisa Roberta, the lead researcher. “Our study explored what we call in the field ‘the dark side’ of alcohol addiction. That’s the compulsion to drink, not because it is pleasurable — which has been the focus of much previous research — but because it relieves the anxiety generated by abstinence and the stressful effects of withdrawal.”

According to Science Daily, CRF is a chemical involved with the body’s stress response. Originally, it was found only in the area of the brain known as the hypothalamus, but has more recently been found in other brain regions, including the pituitary, where it stimulates the secretion of corticotropin, and the amygdala, an area involved with the elevated anxiety, withdrawal, and excessive drinking associated with alcohol dependence. The results from these cellular studies showed that CRF increased the strength of inhibitory synapses (junctions between two nerve cells) in neurons in a manner similar to alcohol. This change occurred through the increased release of the neurotransmitter GABA, which plays an important role in regulating neuronal excitability.

The research team then administered the CRF antagonist R121919 for 23 days into the brains of rats that were exposed to conditions that would normally produce alcohol dependence. Remarkably, the behavior of the “alcohol-dependent” rats receiving one of the CRF antagonist R121919 mimicked their non-addicted counterparts. Instead of seeking out large amounts of alcohol like untreated alcohol-dependent rats, both the treated rats and their non-addicted brethren self-administered alcohol in only moderate amounts.

“This critical observation suggests that increased activation of CRF systems mediates the excessive drinking associated with development of dependence,” said Roberto. She also noted that an intriguing aspect of the study is that it provides a possible physiological link between stress-related behaviors, emotional disorders (i.e. stress disorders, anxiety, depression), and the development of alcohol dependence.