Alcoholism

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.

In recent news, women and alcohol have become a scary reality. It has become more apparent that the number of women abusing alcohol is a pressing and, at times, life-threatening issue. According to the FBI, more women are being arrested nationally for driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol (up 28% from 1998), and about 5.3 million women in the U.S. threaten their health and safety with the use of alcohol.

Women and alcohol is not always a good mix. Many women think that extra cocktail when out with the ladies or another glass of wine with dinner won’t hurt. However, surprisingly, there is a fine line between moderate and excessive drinking. According to U.S. Dietary Guidelines, women should not have more than one alcoholic drink a day (12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits).

But more so than quantifying how much is too much, it’s important to take a look at why this drink limit is crucial to women’s health. Although the drink limit is greater for men, and men are two to three times more likely to abuse alcohol then women, women who abuse alcohol are significantly more likely to have medical problems and develop them earlier in their substance abuse than men. For example, if a woman drinks the same amount as a man, she’s more likely, according to the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, to develop liver-related disease.

Some of this might be due to women’s bodies having a lower water content than men. Their bodies also tend to break down acetaldehyde (a toxic byproduct of alcohol) more slowly so it stays in the liver longer. Scientists have also found that women’s higher levels of estrogen make some liver cells more sensitive to alcohol’s toxic effect. According to British Million Woman Study, as little as one alcoholic drink a day may increase women’s risk for cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus and rectum. Women drinkers are also more likely to get stomach ulcers as a result of drinking, and for some, risk for breast cancer increases. Though the resveratrol in red wine has shown to have heart healthy benefits, drink more than the recommended glass per day and those benefits are reversed. In fact, heavy drinking is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease.

Understanding how these risks might outweigh some of the benefits is important even for light to moderate drinkers. And for those who worry they might be drinking too much, take the following quiz at LifeScript.com.

Here are some warning signs of possible alcohol abuse:

• Can never stick to “just one” drink.
• Regularly drink more than you intended to.
• Feel guilty or ashamed about your drinking.
• Lie to others or attempt to hide your drinking habits.
• Have friends or family who have express their concern about your drinking habits.
• Need to drink in order to relax or feel better.
• Ever “black out” or forget what you did while you were drinking.
• Repeatedly neglect responsibilities at home, work, or school due to alcohol use.
• Continue to drink despite relationship problems it’s causing.
• Drink in physically dangerous situations such as driving or mixing with prescription drugs.
• Repeated legal problems due to alcohol.
• Experience cravings, tolerance, or withdrawal symptoms.